The Best Five Months Of My Short Life

Ratings
Overall
5
Academics: 4
Support: 5
Fun: 5
Housing: 5
Safety: 5
Review

In a sentence, my time in New Zealand was the most transformative, exciting, and time warped five months of my life. I loved every second of my time in New Zealand. I'll start with the academics because according to my dad, that was the reason I was there but I'll explain later, and you've probably heard before, study abroad is not really about the studying. The University of Otago is a far cry from my small liberal arts school in northern Washington State, as it is home to 24,000 students all whom work hard and play hard. In my labs I got to meet Kiwi students and work closely with professors, teaching fellows and peer demonstrators. I got to experience work on the research vessel the Polaris and see more of my adopted Otago region because of it. I loved the hands off teaching style that allows students to take their education into their own hands, I wasn't used to not having someone check up on my work, seeing if I was comfortable at with the material and at first I struggled. I was unsure how to study without a test every two weeks to prepare for, but after the first month I fell into stride and loved being responsible to manage my time.
Like I said before however, it wasn't the academics that made my adventure most memorable. It was the people and the places. I lived in University run housing, UniFlats and loved every minute. The flat housed 6 students, myself, two other americans, two kiwis and a brit, in a complex of 8 identical flats. I couldn't have loved my flatmates more and the whole complex became a family, with shall I say social events being held almost every night and weekend trips to the mountains and lakes and natural beauty of New Zealand being a regular occurrence. It was my time with these people who helped transform to be more willing to say yes, who got my blood pumping as I leaped off a bridge and who made time fly. There is so much more to be said about why you should go to NZ, the ample opportunity for professional networking, the ease of traveling around the country, the friendliness of the locals and so much more but to sum up, I loved my time abroad and can't for the next adventure.

Would you recommend this program?
Yes, I would
Year Completed
2015
Media
Photos