05/01/2023 – 15/01/2023 It was an uneasy start for our journey to Mexico. After transitioning through multiple places, from Auckland → Sydney → Los Angeles → Mexico City, feeling upside down during three days of “sky life” and experiencing flight delays and baggage problems, etc., we finally arrived in Mexico. For the first week, we…Continue Reading Week 1 – Ciudad de Mexico
Culture shock: Culture shocks tend to be the things we can’t prepare for or foresee experiencing. Before embarking on the journey, I had done research and tried to keep an open mind. I roughly knew what the culture was like, the style of cuisine, and the level of poverty. I knew cows were sacred, dogs…Continue Reading Diversity and Culture shock
How long did it take you to get to India? We took: 1 shuttle taxi from Hamilton to Auckland airport, 1.5 hours 3 flights 1 bus ride from Chennai to Puducherry, 5 hours … which finally took us to Puducherry, India! It was over 45 hours of travelling since leaving Hamilton. A longer trip than expected, with…Continue Reading What my Family has Asked me Since I Arrived
Wednesday the 11th marked 7 days in Vietnam! It is so crazy to reflect on the last week and how much we managed to fit into it. Having never been this far from home before, these last few days have shifted my perspective on the world, and every moment has brought me a new experience….Continue Reading Lost in Saigon: My first week in Ho Chi Minh City!
I still had not processed that I was going to Vietnam yet, even after I got on the plane. This would be my first time living and working overseas by myself, which was exciting. The total duration to arrive at the international airport was almost a whole day, but it was fine because I enjoy…Continue Reading First Day in Vietnam
A foreign country is such an experience, and the travel there was no different. We flew through Sydney and Los Angeles in order to get to sunny Mexico, which took a lot out of us and really brought us closer together as a team – the delays, missing flights and luggage caused us to have…Continue Reading new year, new country
It’s hard to organise the past two weeks into a coherent sequence of events. Blended images come to mind of various things I’ve done and seen, but none appear to be vivid enough to centre my impression of the two weeks. I’d have to look through the photos on my phone to jog my memory,…Continue Reading Tianxia in Tainan: a Somewhat Detailed Description
Our programme began with a long 12 hour flight to the City of Lost Angels. Unfortunately during our departure from Los Angeles, we did in fact lose some of our angels along the way. Due to our delayed flight, being the last people to receive our checked bags, and the massive lines for L.A security,…Continue Reading Bienvenido a Mexico
It’s been a while since I’ve written, and that is because while I have had many incredible experiences, I have also had a lot of homework! Something which made a Taiwanese friend of mine chuckle and tell me I finally understood what it was like to be a student here. I’ve also had the wonderful…Continue Reading Gosh! Hasn’t time flown?
Introduction Four days into an overseas experience in Bangkok, Thailand, and already, I’ve been struck by some of the stark differences and similarities between here and my home country, New Zealand. Here are a few from first impressions. Differences An Overflow of Information One of the first things I noticed upon arriving in Thailand was…Continue Reading Contrasts and Commonalities: A New Zealander’s Perspective on Bangkok