First days in Auckland

The first days of my semester abroad were really really stressful. After an all in all 30-hour long journey, I finally arrived with two other study colleagues in Auckland's Airport. We drove by Taxi into the City and expected a nice, spacious Apartment, that should become our new home for the next half year, but often it comes out differently than expected because the apartment was everything else than nice and spacious. Even though we knew that it would be hard to find an accommodation, we decided to take the risk and searched for another apartment. How to imagine, after such a long journey, our mood was at a low point. We ran through whole Auckland with our half-year-luggage, to find an accommodation for the night. My future roommate already said that she regrets to travel to New Zealand. The start was definitely everything else than perfect. But in the same night, we got to know the kindness of the kiwis: A young woman, who was a national player for the New Zealand Volleyball team, picked us up and found a backpacker hostel for us. From there our journey seemed to get better again. In the next morning, we went through whole Auckland and asked about 20 different accommodations if they have any room left for a half year long stay and finally we found an apartment 2 minutes away from the university. Simply perfect. Now the next big thing was the start of the classes. How will the paper be? How will my new fellow students be? Can I cope the university? But all my worries became irrelevant after the first view days. I've never experienced such a warmly and heartily greeting. All the icebreaking games and information we got in the beginning, enabled an easy entry into the new life abroad. The university fascinated me like nothing before with its fusion of the Maori and the Kiwi culture. When I now look at the period of time from the first day to now, I can definitely say that this semester was the most enriching experience of my whole life. I joined a Te Ara Pou paper, which showed me the culture of the Maoris and brought my spirit closer to myself. I got more new friends than in the last 2 years of studying at home. And just yesterday, my roommate explained that she definitely will drop some tears, when the day of our return journey arrived.