Author Archives: kfd5016

OOO-Week.

This week has been amazingly busy due to O-Week or Orientation week. Every night the bars in town had different themed parties and they gave out free food and Waikato mechandise every day on campus. I went up to campus early a few times for free “brekkie” which consisted of an egg on bread. Yum.

Classes, or papers as they’re called here, went very well this week. Surprisingly, my monday 8am accounting paper turned out to be really interesting while my theatre class was pretty dull. I switched from my theatre paper to a New Zealand screen paper so I’m hoping to see some of Peter Jackson’s old horror movies. A lot of reading has already been assigned for classes and the workload seems to be more then PSU per class, but since a full workload in New Zealand consists of three papers, it probably evens out.

 

Waikato

The sign for Uni that I see everyday ^

This weekend’s plans to go to The Mount again were folied by massive amounts of rain from Friday through Sunday, but we decided to go to a music festival in town and just get drenched while listening to all kinds of music which seemed like a good alternative. Thursday night in town was my favourite of O-Week as it was Fluro Party which basically entailed wearing the most lurid colours possible and dancing under blacklights.

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Flatmates, friends and I before Fluro ^

We’ve started booking some weekend trips for March including Lake Taupo to bungy jump this coming weekend, and then the Tongariro crossing hike in two weekends! Very excited to bungy although I know I’ll be terrified at the time!

 

Cheers,

Karen 

 

 


Location: Hamilton, New Zealand

I’m burned as, bro!

Kia ora! It’s the end of my first week in Hamilton, New Zealand and so much has happened! I arrived at my flat last Saturday, expecting to spend the day unpacking, but instead my new flatmates Allie and Morgan told me they were going to Mt. Maunganui, or The Mount, and invited me to come.

I threw some clothes into my backpack and we were on our way to the East coast. Allie had a caravan so we stayed there for the night. The next morning, we climbed the Mount, looking out at the amazing views of the ocean and the white beaches.

 

the mt.jpgThe next few days passed in a blur with so much to do. Orientation, flat dinners, setting up my room and exploring in town. I met my other flatmates, Josh, Sean, Tyler and Ha

nnah and they introduced me to some Kiwi lingo. Basically you can add “as” to the end of pretty much anything. Sweet as, burned as, hungry as…I’ve already started using them.

 One thing I’ve noticed about New Zealand so far is that everyone is incredibly friendly and always willing to help you out. On Wednesday, we decided to take a trip to the hot springs. We took the bus to the closest town to the springs, Ngaruawahia. It was tiny and it was still 32km to the springs. We went into a shop to ask for a taxi’s number and the lady behind the counter said “a what?” which left us in a sticky situation. We were about to turn around and take the bus back, but the lady, Kelly, said that she would call her mum and see if she would drive us. We were so amazed that “Nana” as she insisted on us calling her, would take the time to drive some random strangers. Nana ended up waiting while we swam and then driving us the senic route back to Hamilton. We made a new friend and plan on going back and visiting her!

We experienced this generosity again on Saturday. My friend Meg and I took the bus out to Raglan beach on the West Coast and met some international students out there. We had a wonderful day surfing but when it was time to head from the beach back into town, our only option, as the bus driver has told us earlier, was to hitchhike. We were skeptical at first but soon just walked up to a young couple who were getting into their car in the car park and asked if they’d drive us. They replied that “Of course they would” and suggested a fish and chip shop for us to grab dinner at. They ended up coming and eating with us and telling us about some of the local culture.

 

 

surfing raglan.jpg So far, so good. Bring on next week! It’s O-Week, which is short for orientation week and has a reputation for being crazy, with all the bars having themed parties and foam pits.

Karen


Location: Hamilton, New Zealand

Fun Housing Mixup

So I leave for California on Friday then onto New Zealand on Tuesday so I thought I better check in with my housing situation. I got an email back from the University of Waikato saying that there had been a mistake with my application and that, as they thought I was a domestic student already living in Hamilton, they did not put me on any housing lists. Essentially I was homeless. Frantically I started applying to flatmate wanted ads in houses around the university.

Today, I just sent in my deposit for a 7 bedroom flat 5 minutes walk away from campus and with 3 guys and 3 girls as my flatmates. They seems awesome and I think I may have come out ontop in the situation. Instead of living with the other international students, I now get to live in a kiwi flat and experience Hamilton from a locals point of view.

Win.

Two days until I leave! My plan is to fly to San Diego to stay with a friend from Friday 11th to Tuesday the 15th. We have plans to snowboard and he said he’s teach me to surf. I’ll take the train up the coast on Tuesday into Union Station in Los Angeles and try to find my way from there to LAX. Couple hours of waiting around and I should be on my way to Auckland. I land in Auckland on the 17th, skipping a day during the flight, and am planning on meeting my friend Jeff in downtown Auckland for the day (he works on a cruise ship that happens to be docking there). After that, I’m meeting my Aunt for two days before heading to Hamilton to move into my flat and start studying!!!

Karen


Location: Baltimore, Maryland

T-Minus Two Months.

Hey everyone!

It’s almost exactly two months until I fly down to New Zealand to start my study abroad experience. I decided to study in New Zealand because I have a lot of family from there and hold citizenship but have never spent much time getting to know the country. I hope this experience will allow me to get to know the culture and help me forge connections that will be useful if I eventually decide to move there for good!

I grew up in Devon, United Kingdom, but have been living outside Baltimore, Maryland for 10 years. I’m a junior at Penn State and will be studying at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand.

Hamilton is the country’s fourth largest city in the Waikato region of the North Island. I’ll be living in self-catered accommodation and taking four classes in arts, international tourism and hospitality and Maori culture and language.

My hopes are that I get a chance to embrace my citizenship and really begin to feel like I have a right to hold it. I also want to do a bungy jumping tour, try zorbing (strapping yourself into a inflatable ball and rolling down a hill), learn how to pack like a backpacker and not like I’m moving my entire house (I’m limiting myself to three pairs of shoes) and travel through both the North and South Island taking in the sights. I’m also hoping to take a trip to Australia.

If all goes well, I’m hoping to find winter work on the ski fields at Mt. Ruapehu, so I’ll be flying with my snowboard strapped to my back!

Check back in a few weeks to see if I’m sticking to my three shoe packing rule…

Bye!

Karen
 


Location: State College, PA