I spent the spring semester of 2010 studying in New Zealand through the ISEP program. I used this blog to keep an account of my school experience and as a record of the adventures I found. Hopefully it can serve two purposes: to have kept my friends and family informed of my travels and experiences; as well as to serve as a reminder of how important the study abroad experience is, whether it's in New Zealand or not.

24 July 2010

Easter Break - Sunday/Monday - 17-18/4/10

The next morning my dad and I are up early to send him off. We wake however to find that a volcano has erupted in Europe and flights are grounded across the world and everything keeps backing up. My father’s concerned this will keep him from getting home, but we check with the airline and everything appears in order. His ride to the airport arrives on time and I once again feel how much I don’t want him to leave. Once he’s gone I feel like I can’t manage to do anything so I settle on the couch to read Dune for some time. I figure I’ll get out at some point during the day. The little boy in the house comes over and plays for a while in front of me before deciding to engage me and I keep him entertained for nearly an hour and a half while his mother goes about her chores. She thanks me for watching him for so long before they head out to a dedication of a sign down the road. It’s some type of historical marker with information that they’re rather proud of.

I end up spending almost the entire day reading and manage to just make it out to the Japanese Garden to read for a while before the sun goes down. Then I myself must pack for my flight the next day.

The next morning I get some time to slowly get myself together before the shuttle comes to pick me up and whisk me off to the airport. The shuttle driver is quite nice and we pick up a young lady and her son who will both be on my flights to Palmy. The driver takes us the long way to the airport to give me the total view of Nelson. Once again, I’m shocked by the ease of flying within NZ. I simply show up and hand them my bag and tell them where it’s going. They require no ID and there is no security screening before I get on the plane. They hardly even glance at my ticket. It’s a fairly short flight to Christchurch, where I debate going out to look at the city before my next flight, but decide it’s not worth the risk of getting lost. Besides that, I remember coming over the hill and seeing the city for the first time and immediately thinking “this is not a place I want to be.” So I settle down to write out more blog entries which will not be entered online for quite some time as it turns out. I eventually make it back to Palmy where I can semi settle back in. While I still feel like I’m living out of a suitcase here, it’s slightly less bad than living out of the back of a car. At least here I get a closet and a kind of room (jail cell like though it may be) to spread my stuff out in.