Today I went to a Study Abroad Orientation to learn more about the administrative processes of studying abroad and to talk with students who had been to New Zealand during previous semesters. I was originally very unhappy with the idea of spending my Saturday morning on campus and talking about how to fill out the ninety million forms I've already been stressing over for the last few months. However, the little mandatory label had me loading onto the Weekend T bus, surrounded by excited football game goers. Little girls with carolina blue bows in their hair were excitedly scrambling in the seats and talking about birthdays. I felt a bit intellectual with my bulky backpack and wondered what the parents thought of the girl lounging at the back of the bus in the plain white tee with still damp hair. As the crowds poured out of the bus on Franklin street, the aroma of burgers and hotdogs from dozens of frat house tailgates taunted me. I was tired, bedragled, hungry and envious of the polo shirt wearing families. Not a great morning.
The first 45 minutes of my meeting were spent creating some quality doodles on my handbook and staring at the strange button mechanism on my desk that lit up when I pressed it. Do they host game shows in the Global Education Center? I was intrigued. Unfortunatly though, I was also rapidly becoming overwhelmed and stressed out, not from the information I was supposedly listening to, but from the comprehensive to-do lists that were forming in my head. When the second hour rolled around, I was tempted to skip out on the Student Q&A session to head to Davis library, but because the two students next to me were so friendly, I decided to stay and talk with them. They were traveling to Australia in the Spring and I enjoyed telling them about the great time Dad and I had there a few summers ago. They seemed pleased to hear my stories and looked as if they were getting increasingly enthusiastic. I realized that I too was getting excited.
When we broke up into smaller groups, I met fellow UNC students traveling to New Zealand. Though no one at UNC will be studying in Auckland, or even to the North Island, I liked the group of people and hope we can see each other in New Zealand during our travels abroad. We learned lots of helpful hints from Caitlin, our panel leader. She told us about important things like travel costs, cell phones, car insurance etc. But she also told us important tid bits like how to rent cars and camper vans with pin-up models on them, how to avoid the monsoon seasons in fiji, how to interpret measuring internet in gigabytes, to take note of expensive cheese, where to find the newzealand craigslist (trademe.com), and clued us in to vital information like the fact that New Zealand tampons don't have applicators. It was very informative.
Basically, I left the orientation excited and ready to go. I can't wait to get through these last few hell weeks so I can get start packing and planning my travel plans!
