Danielle in New Zealand!

I’m loving New Zealand and if it would not mess up my graduation plan, I would consider staying another semester. It is such a beautiful country; everywhere is like a scene from a postcard. Speaking of postcards, I have accumulated a lot. The original plan was to send them back home, but I think I’ll just use them as pictures I couldn’t personally take with my camera. Good thing I never promised that I would send any postcards. 

My little dragon companion is only a special guest star in my pictures. He is very lazy and prefers to spend his time near the window basking in the sun. Occasionally, he will go to lay on the beach.

Classes are going well, but my focus has been on experiencing as much as I can in the little time I have here. My Uni hosts field trips every weekend to different events around the North Shore, such as night markets, hot springs and horseback riding. The night markets have been my favorite; I was able to eat from every type of food stall imaginable and then pick up some cool clothes and knick-knacks. Luckily, I came in the right semester for all of the cultural events. I was able to go to a lantern festival for Chinese New Year and the annual Pasifika Festival, which showcases music, food, clothing and traditional items from all of the Pacific Islands. 

During our two week Easter break, a group of us traveled around North Island. We unsuccessfully dug for hot water at Hot Water Beach. We hiked to Cathedral Cove and Stingray Bay in Hahei. We stayed in Rotorua, the home of geothermal pools, for a few nights. We visited the glowworms at Waitomo Caves. We had a free drink at the Green Dragon during our Hobbiton tour. We hiked through Tongariro Crossing in Taupo. You don’t know adventure until you’re crawling up a snowy, rocky mountain in simple tennis shoes. At one point, you had to use a chain to climb one peak and at another you literally slide down the tallest peak of the mountain. 

Common dolphins in the Hauraki Gulf.

Hahei, the site where Narnia was filmed. 

We might be too tall to be hobbits.

The beginning of our 6-8 hour hike up snowy mountains, past sulfur lakes and through active volcanic regions at Tongariro Crossing.

After that once in a lifetime hike, we spent our last days of the break in Wellington. We visited museums, historic churches, Parliament and on the last day, we went ocean kayaking. It was the best and we are planning to travel around South Island during our study break before exams in June. 

There are still some things I cannot get used to. The most inconvenient is that most stores close at 5. My flatmate explained that it is the effect of World War 1. New Zealand had gone into a depression, so all of the shops closed early and were not open on the weekends. It was only a few years ago, that stores even opened on the weekends, but they still close early.  Apparently, bars had closed between 6 and 8 and it’s only recently that they stay open past 10. Another peeve is the internet. It is amazing if you can find a place with Wi-Fi, miraculous if it is free. The internet you do have is not what I’m used to. On campus, I can rarely connect to the internet on my laptop from my flat. If I go to the academic buildings, I can usually only connect to Facebook and the school website. Overall, it has been fun and at times, challenging. 

I cannot believe that I am half way through my time here and I’m excited for all that is still to come. 

Danielle Hill

Massey University

Auckland, New Zealand

Wendel and Danny in Scotland and Beyond!

How do you write about an intangible idea? You could start internally with how it makes you feel: I felt like I was part of a family I never met. You could talk externally about the people you met: they were diverse, caring, trusting, and eternally optimistic. You could also describe the experiences that occurred: hiking, bungee jumping, St. Patrick’s Days, etc. Even with all these descriptions you would miss the fleeting moment/idea that I feel embodies what study abroad is about. These moments can’t be captured in a Facebook post, Snapchat, Instagram, or video. You try to give the feeling to others who can’t experience through blogs, postcards, or letters. However you know inside that the memories you have are the only traces left to accurately embody it. With that being said take this post as a humble offer from a family member you are meeting for the first time. Reading through some of the previous blogs I feel honored to be included in a group of adventurous people.  

My study abroad experience has gone through so many phases in my short time. Arriving in Glasgow, Scotland with my dragon Danny, we were very overwhelmed. The Glaswegian accent is quite thick. Every conversation was like a blind date. I never really knew if a person was genuinely nice or putting on a façade. I can safely say now that almost everyone is genuinely nice and wants to help you. Additionally completing simple task felt like a chore requiring much effort. From simple things such as buying bedding sheets to ordering a meal, I was constantly challenged. It’s crazy how missing one or two words can completely lose the substance of a sentence. 

As I progressed I quickly became comfortable. And this sense of family began to take shape. The easiest way to describe this is through the lifestyle emphasis. In most situations the US tends to stratify people increasing the power-distance. The US is like a hotel and the UK/Europe is a mall. The penthouse of a hotel is the best, nicest room. It is physically at the top of the hotel and financially only people who are in the top tax bracket can afford.  Therefore only people with a lot of power (money) can get into the penthouse.  The mall is not equally divided, but there is much less distinction between the rooms. So this brings us back to the family feeling. Every time except one, in Dublin, I have stayed in someone else’s residence.  I love staying at bed and breakfasts (B&B).  My first B&B was at Fort Williams in Scotland. Our host Ann was very accommodating. My roommate and I, whom I traveled with, talked at length with here during breakfast each morning and learned much about the Fort Williams area. 

Cold winter mornings at the B&B

Currently I just returned from spring break. If Megabus had frequent rider miles I would be in the platinum club! I traveled to London, Paris, and Barcelona. London was quite expensive and overrated in my opinion, I prefer Glasgow if you are going to endure bad weather. However Paris and Barcelona more than lived up to their hype!!

Danny made a new friend!

 I was even lucky enough to experience Holi in Barcelona. If you are an arts major I feel you should be required to visit both cities! The Louvre Museum is so huge and contains a lot of history, and Barcelona is a living tutorial of how you should design any large scale project. In both cities I met amazing people who had such a different perspective on life. I was quite jealous of how they could be so satisfied with much less than I am accustomed to. 

That's my "I barely survived Holi" smile

My highlight of spring break was the Saturday in Barcelona where I spent the day on a bike tour and the evening having a rooftop tapas dinner.

Planning my return to Barcelona

It was a great time to reflect on my time and how fortunate I was to be abroad. That night on the rooftop, I was almost able to capture that intangible idea. It came up in a conversation with the hostess of the dinner. Looking out at Montjuic I told her how different our perspective of tonight was. It was my last night in Barcelona and was quite jealous that she could come up every day. She smiled, then looked at me and said “We don’t do this often, plus during this time of year it gets really cold at night.” 

Wendel Ridley

University of Strathclyde

Glasgow, Scotland

United Kingdom