First thoughts

BLOG October 1, 2015

    This is the first of what is going to be many blogs about me and my adventures while study abroad! I am so excited to study in New Zealand. It is crazy to think that I will be so far away for so long.I can only imagine what it is going to be like. I’ve asked some of the international students here if living in the US was what they expected and imagined it to be like. They’ve all said that it was just like they imagined, but they also said that the US was ‘put on display’ a lot in their countries through television and advertisements, so they know what to expect. For me, I don’t see a lot of kiwi culture or lifestyles other than what I’ve researched, so this has made me very curious about what to expect for my upcoming journeys.

    One of the biggest fears that i have right now about going to study in NZ is that it will not happen. I’ve never been given an opportunity this great before, and I am very afraid that I will screw it up. I have been SO sick so far this semester and have fallen behind in a couple of my classes. I am hoping that i can easily catch back up in them, but it will take me a few weeks of hard work to get to where i feel stable in my classes again. I know that if my grades fall this semester, study abroad will become more of a challenge to me for obvious reasons. Not only is the academic part of this scaring me, but the financial part is, too. I’ve always been on the ‘not-able-to-afford-nice-things’ end of life, so I am very afraid that i will not be able to afford studying abroad. I am going to have to work extra hard with applying for scholarships so that i can pay as little as i have to to study abroad. I love that i have been given this great opportunity by life to study in NZ, but it’ll be just my luck that something doesn’t go as planned.

    I am also very nervous about traveling so far for so long without an easy way of getting home in case something bad were to happen. I have two younger brothers, Dylan and Rookie. Rookie is actually in South Korea right now serving in the US Air Force. When he was in boot camp last fall, our youngest brother, Harry, drowned. Rookie was very far away when this happened and having him come home was a very big deal that was hard to figure out. I am so afraid that something like this will happen to another one of my family members while i am in NZ. I have always been very attached to my family. I love them so much. It’ll be hard to adjust to a world where i don’t see my parents at least once a week. When i moved to college, the transition from not getting to hug them goodnight every night was hard, so i can only imagine how hard being on the other side of the world for a year will be. Even though it is scary and tough, I know that it’ll make me a better and stronger and more independent person. This experience will help me grow up in my own way.

    While i am in NZ, i don't have any personal goals set for me yet other than to enjoy myself and to do well in my classes. I would love to make friends with some of the locals so that i can get out and explore the country. I want to visit where LOTR movies were filmed. I would also like to go to a Maori village. I have done a bit of research on a Maori tourist attraction on the South Island and it seems to be very interesting, so i would like to find an attraction on the north island near me and visit it. I have big dreams of being able to do things such as skydive, scuba diving, snowboarding, and water sports while i am in NZ, but i am not sure if i will be able to do many of them since i will most likely not have that much spending money while i am there. I can always dream though, right?! Maybe i will be given another awesome opportunity while i am there and actually be able to do some of these things. On a more positive note, there are plenty of things that i would like to do that i know i will be able to if i find the right group of people. I love to rock climb and hike, and NZ has plenty of places to do both of those! it is also an island and i will be there during the summer, too, so perhaps i could go to their beaches and see how they compare to our east coast beaches! That will be so fun.

    Of course when i think of study abroad in NZ, everything that comes to mind first is tourist-attraction-like things.On the academic part of things, i am very excited to see how classes differ in NZ when compared to MC. I have always heard that the classes abroad will be harder, but after hanging out with the international students here at MC, i don't think that they will be that bad. I am very excited to have to adapt to a new learning environment and see how i perform. I will be taking four classes each semester, so i hope that i will have a good balance of school work and free time.

    In the prompt for the blog, we are told to list things that we want to do to “maximize our experience” in our country. I want to make a checklist of stuff i think would be cool to do while i am in NZ. I think that making a checklist would help me to see how many things i have done that i wanted to do and what all i need to make plans for. I will also alter the list once i get there and realize what is attainable or not. I will put that checklist on the bottom of this blog and i will update it as i go along.

    One more concern of mine before i end this blog: my boyfriend… Ali and i started dating maybe a couple of weeks ago. we know that this relationship will end in heartbreak, but we wanted to have fun with it while we could. next semester, he is going back to morocco and i will be going to NZ. this will be very hard on both of us. i am falling pretty hard for him, so i am nervously awaiting the heartbreak that is to come when we live on literally the opposite ends of the earth. We have thought about different ways to make it work after we both leave,but we both know that maintaining long distance relationships is hard. Plus, we’ve only been a couple for a short time now, so in a month or so, i’m assuming Ali and i will revisit this conversation. I like him alot and hope that it all works out, but i’m excited for NZ regardless.

    In all, i am very excited to study abroad at Massey. I think i am more worried than excited right now, but i feel that once things settle down in my life here at MC, i will become more eager rather than worried. Now for this checklist of fun!

-Kayla

    STUFF TO DO IN NEW ZEALAND!!!

• Go hiking
• See the shire
• Go swimming at the beaches
• Go to a local’s house
• Go to a bar
• Get my grammar corrected
• Learn a kiwi idiom
• Go skydiving
• Go SCUBA diving
• See something breathtaking
• Tell someone about TN
• Go rock climbing
• Go to a Maori attraction
• Get a tribal tattoo
• Go snowboarding
• Do a water sport
• Visit a cave system
• Go bungy jumping
• Go stargazing
• Go ziplining
• Go water rafting
• Try surfing
• Attend an arts festival