Great Program!

I had a great time when I studied abroad in Wellington. The campus was not a far walk from my on-campus apartment, and it was a gorgeous walk, since I could see the water and all of downtown on my way to school.

I chose to take more general credit classes rather than many higher level courses. I found them incredibly interesting, and they gave me the chance to do research about New Zealand history. It was the first time I took a class that had more than 30 students in it, so I had to learn about how the larger classes functioned.

I lived in an on-campus apartment with a furnished kitchen. I chose this option because the staff at AustraLearn stated that dietary restrictions are difficult to deal with in the dorms. While I spent a lot of time hanging out in the dorms with friends, I liked that I could cook for myself. My friends and I would explore restaurants often, and we found a number of restaurants that were inexpensive and delicious.

I felt that the local students were incredibly friendly, and my friends who lived in the dorms and I made some great friendships with local students.

My friends and I tried to do as much travel as possible. The only place we didn't choose to go was to the southern tip of the south island, because by the time our break came around, that area was snowed in. I brought along my ski jacket, hoping to ski, but we missed the opening of the season by a week before we left to travel in Australia. We did a lot of awesome trips, and I highly recommend traveling as much as possible, though some weekends we were tourists in Wellington and loved it. Wellington has a lot to offer, and we made a list of all the things we wanted to see there. I was really glad that I had chosen to study in Wellington rather than Auckland because there is so much to see and do there.