Student Bloggers

Time is flying by here in Windy Wellington! In the past two weeks I have adjusted to my flat, my classes, Victoria University, and my new city. I’ve even started picking up some of the kiwi lingo!

At Vic, I am taking three courses- or papers as the kiwis call it: New Zealand Sociological Perspectives, Investigations of the Social World and The Pacific Heritage. The class sizes range a little bit. I’m used to going to a small private school where my smallest class is about 8 students and my largest class is about 30 students. Here at Victoria my smallest class is about 30 students and my largest is about 200 maybe. It’s such a new experience. At first I felt like a deer lost in the headlights, but I started to ask people where classes were, how things worked, and introduced myself to my lecturers. Now I know what I’m doing and have my schedules all worked out. I even signed up for a membership at the Victoria Recreation Center!

In between papers I like to eat my lunch or get some studying done. There are quite a few different cafes and places where you can get food on the Kelburn campus, where all three of my classes are. The lunch rush starts at about 1:00 pm so I tend to only buy lunch on days that I have back to back papers to go to. There is also a pharmacy and bookstore where you can buy anything you might need quick accessibility for. Most importantly though, there are tons of places to sit, eat, catch up with your friends, study and relax. If you want a quieter place to study you can even go into the library and find a nice spot to be studious as long as you please. There are also study places outside with some pretty gorgeous views.

Speaking of gorgeous views, this past weekend myself and the other Arcadia students at Wellington went to the Abel Tasman National Park. I can’t even begin to explain in words just how beautiful everything was. From the beaches, to the waterfalls, and islands, my breath was constantly taken away. We stayed on a floating backpackers - a comfortable and cute little boat - docked at the beach, did a 5 hour hike, and kayaked for about 3 hours. In that whole weekend, we could see all the stars lighting up the sky, watched some beautiful sunsets, saw some sea lions and dolphins, and stopped at a natural made rock slide. I can’t even begin to explain just how incredible it all was. Despite being tired from all the activities, I enjoyed every single second!

I’m looking forward to the next few weeks because of different events and activities that are happening in Wellington. This upcoming weekend there will be a festival on Cuba Street with food and entertainment. The beach isn’t a long walk away from my flat, nor is the Te Papa Museum. I’m also planning to stop and try a Mexican restaurant called The Flying Burrito Brothers as soon as I can. In the meantime, I’ve begun planning my week long Easter Break trip with my friends; we will be flying down to the South Island!

Even though I miss my family back home and get homesick every now and then, I’ve been making some great friends and have been pushing myself to go out of my comfort zone. Believe it or not, it’s been making that much of a difference and time is flying by. Just make sure you enjoy every second of it!