Kia Ora everyone! I’m Raeva, and I’m coming to you live from Hamilton, New Zealand! I am beyond excited for my first blog post about my abroad experience, and I hope you will all enjoy reading about my adventures, life lessons, and so much more!
This particular blog will be about my pre-arrival experience which was… quite the time. With a journey made up of panicked packing, delayed flights, and running through airports, getting to New Zealand was certainly an adventure.
As soon as my packing cubes came in about two weeks before my departure, I was on the move. The odd satisfaction of squishing my sweaters into little cubes and tossing them into my suitcase really fueled my excitement for the upcoming semester abroad. Well, excitement and a bit of anxiety. I certainly had worries, like if I was going to make friends, if this was going to be the right place for me, or if I was going to experience that “life-changing” aura of study abroad. To say the least, I was a little overwhelmed.
It didn’t exactly help when my first flight was very delayed, so much so that I had missed my connecting flight to Auckland. I had to take a pit stop in Chicago, but my spirits were up! At this point, the anxiety had dwindled and was replaced with exhaustion (flights will do that to you).
The next day, picture this: your new flight got delayed too, you were going to miss another flight to Auckland, and the morale was running low. Then! You are offered a standby seat on a connecting flight to San Francisco, and suddenly you are dashing through the ORD Airport with nothing but TSA Pre-Check and hope. What a wild ride! Long story short, though I endured many complications, I finally made it to my plane headed to Auckland International Airport. That flight nap was phenomenal. I was so relieved to finally be in New Zealand once we landed...even though both of my luggage bags were still stuck in the US. Because, of course they were.
Two weeks later and I am writing to you now (with both my bags, thankfully), in my cozy campus cottage with an exciting few months ahead of me. I cannot wait to see what is in store, and I can confirm it has already been absolutely amazing! That is all for now, but stay tuned for more of me in NZ! I have a feeling it is going to be a wonderful ride. With love and marmite, Raeva :)
Yay Raeva! Glad you made it and I cant wait to read Everything You Write!!!