Week 4: The Highest Highs and Lowest Lows

Kia Ora, my experiences living abroad this week almost summarize my entire experience in New Zealand so far. In the moments when things get rough for me, I've found that being away from my support system back home and not hearing from my friends exacerbate my bad feelings. This week, in particular, I felt quite disconnected from my friends back home and have missed my cat, Luma. Wednesdays and Thursdays (New Zealand time) are especially hard, as it's Tuesday and Wednesday in the States when my friend group usually gets together. I've tried my best not to think about these things, but I am grateful for a host mom who is willing to listen when things are hard and I can't ignore my thoughts. At the same time, I've continued to explore and have amazing new experiences while growing closer to the people in my cohort, leading to some of my best moments in the country, if not in my life. I'll go into those experiences in more detail.

I've had solo adventures and group hangouts this week. On Tuesday this week, I decided to take a walk around Takapuna, the area where my school is located. I decided that I wanted to venture beyond the restaurants I have frequented and check out some other spots in the area. I got ice cream from Duck Island, one of the best ice cream places in my area. Also, I just have to say, sushi in New Zealand is fantastic! On Friday, AJR released a new album, and since they're my favorite band I had to listen to it. Rather than listen to it in my room, I chose to walk around Eskdale, the largest reserve that's close to my homestay. It was a really cool experience, it felt like I was in a jungle, and the new music was a nice touch.

As for group hangouts, I headed to Milford (a suburb north of Takapuna) on Thursday to meet up with some others for dinner. None of us had tried Malaysian food before, and there was a highly-rated one in the area. We decided to eat there, and I really liked it! After that, we walked on Milford Beach and grabbed ice cream to wrap up the evening.

The highlight of my week, and my time here so far, was going to Waiheke Island on Saturday with my cohort. We started out the day by taking a ferry from downtown Auckland to the island, then going to have brunch at Wai Kitchen in Oneroa. The food presentation was excellent, and the views from the restaurant were fantastic as well. Then, we began our venture around the island's vineyards. We started with Stony Ridge, which was further inland than the others we visited. After this, we took a bus back into town so we could get to our next stop, Mudbrick. From the top of this vineyard's hill, you could see both downtown Auckland and Rangitoto. Our final wine-tasting stop was at Cable Bay, which was not far down the road from Mudbrick. In fact, I could see Mudbrick from Cable Bay's outdoor area. After this, we walked back into town to grab dinner and ice cream. With ice cream in hand, we walked down to the beach in Oneroa to wrap up the evening. Lots of sailboats were out, so it did ruin our view of the ocean and other islands a bit. However, it wasn't particularly devastating. After some time there, we went back to the ferry, but the one we hoped to catch was full. So, we hung out a bit longer before catching the next ferry, which was a good moment as well. Everyone had such a great time on the island, we grew closer together and had lots of fun walking around and coming up with a plan as we went along. We also met others close in age to us on the ferry ride back, which made our travels back to downtown Auckland more enjoyable after a long day.

Living nearly halfway across the world from everyone back home has been difficult in some ways, but an extremely rewarding experience. I'm not the most outgoing person when in new situations and groups, and I've been faced with a lot of them, forcing me to grow and put myself out there. Also, I've become more okay with being independent by going out and doing new things on my own. Having people around will always be better than being alone, but I've been able to have fun even without others with me. I'm really glad I have done this because if I didn't I would end up being a homebody like I was back in the States, and not have a good international experience. I've come a long way in terms of confidence and independence since being in New Zealand after such a rough year struggling with mental health and being scared to go out into the world alone. It's been fantastic, and I'm just now at the halfway point of my placement! Four more weeks of new adventures before I come back to the States.

Bye for now!