dilanium
7th January 2009, 05:38 PM
Well it's a few days over six months since we arrived here in New Zealand so I figured it was time to give you an update. I'm not really all that great with words so I'll do my best to make this organised and understandable.
When we arrived it was cold and rainy and I could barely understand anything people said without concentrating a lot. I felt very foreign and out of place.
Now it's warm and usually not rainy (haha I am in Palmerston North afterall), I still sometimes have trouble understanding people, especially over public address systems (like at a supermarket), but I don't have to concentrate so hard on what people are saying to understand them. I usually don't feel foreign except when talking to people and they ask where I'm from.
I spent the first five or so months studying for my program and really didn't experience as much kiwi culture as I could have. I found that I fell in with the international students at my school much better than the kiwis (the americans and canadians). I think a large part of this is due to the fact that most of the kiwi students are eight years younger than I am and a lot of the international students are older.
This summer we toured the eastern coast of the North Island from Hawkes Bay up to Coromandel and back down through Rotorua and Taupo. I really liked these areas much better than Palmy, but I don't have a choice to move right now.
After many struggles our cat arrived safely and survived quarantine at Shado-Lans. I definitely recommend both Shado-Lans and the Pet transport company we used (IPT LAX). They both helped a lot when there were paperwork problems with my cat and got him here safely. He is now settled in very well and has gained back all the weight he lost and some more.
We ended up adopting a puppy right before Xmas and have integrated her into our household. She's a greyhound/Border Collie mix and is great fun. She really only acts up right before it's time for her walks or she's in a really playful mood.
Since the middle of December I have been working on a Dairy farm (required for my degree) and so I've had to be awake before 5am to be there for the morning milkings. I'm not a morning person and it has really been taking a toll on me. I only have to last until the end of January though and then I am done with that.
The holidays really didn't feel like Xmas or New Years to me. We had a tree but it was warm and I was wearing shorts next to it. Plus none of my family were here so I was a bit homesick.
Overall I like it here. I would like to make more friends, be able to sleep in past 6am and have a working TV (our TV is NTSC and we don't have a converter yet), but those aren't major complaints. It's not perfect here, but the faults are much less than where I used to live. I'll be staying until my program ends (4 more years) so we'll see what I have to say about it then. :)
When we arrived it was cold and rainy and I could barely understand anything people said without concentrating a lot. I felt very foreign and out of place.
Now it's warm and usually not rainy (haha I am in Palmerston North afterall), I still sometimes have trouble understanding people, especially over public address systems (like at a supermarket), but I don't have to concentrate so hard on what people are saying to understand them. I usually don't feel foreign except when talking to people and they ask where I'm from.
I spent the first five or so months studying for my program and really didn't experience as much kiwi culture as I could have. I found that I fell in with the international students at my school much better than the kiwis (the americans and canadians). I think a large part of this is due to the fact that most of the kiwi students are eight years younger than I am and a lot of the international students are older.
This summer we toured the eastern coast of the North Island from Hawkes Bay up to Coromandel and back down through Rotorua and Taupo. I really liked these areas much better than Palmy, but I don't have a choice to move right now.
After many struggles our cat arrived safely and survived quarantine at Shado-Lans. I definitely recommend both Shado-Lans and the Pet transport company we used (IPT LAX). They both helped a lot when there were paperwork problems with my cat and got him here safely. He is now settled in very well and has gained back all the weight he lost and some more.
We ended up adopting a puppy right before Xmas and have integrated her into our household. She's a greyhound/Border Collie mix and is great fun. She really only acts up right before it's time for her walks or she's in a really playful mood.
Since the middle of December I have been working on a Dairy farm (required for my degree) and so I've had to be awake before 5am to be there for the morning milkings. I'm not a morning person and it has really been taking a toll on me. I only have to last until the end of January though and then I am done with that.
The holidays really didn't feel like Xmas or New Years to me. We had a tree but it was warm and I was wearing shorts next to it. Plus none of my family were here so I was a bit homesick.
Overall I like it here. I would like to make more friends, be able to sleep in past 6am and have a working TV (our TV is NTSC and we don't have a converter yet), but those aren't major complaints. It's not perfect here, but the faults are much less than where I used to live. I'll be staying until my program ends (4 more years) so we'll see what I have to say about it then. :)