Recently by Sally E. Owens

Here it is, the day before I check out of my cottage and leave the University of Waikato, and the city of Hamilton. These 4+ months have been incredible. I feel as though it has flown by, but at the same time, like they've been really long and full of events, trips, and all kinds of awesome memories.

Thinking back to the first week when I had just arrived here, all the new faces and places... it feels like forever ago. I have grown to love those places, adore those faces, and I am now leaving with lifelong friendships and a cherished life I shared with those people. It's a very unique experience, studying abroad. You go to an incredible place for a relatively short amount of time, meet a whole bunch of other people doing the same thing, (and a few people there for longer) and you get to travel and experience this new culture with them, getting really close to them.

You are all in the same boat: not really knowing anyone, being homesick, etc, so friendships are formed quickly, and before you know it, you have great, trustworthy friends that you feel like you've known for way longer than a few short weeks or months. It's a wonderful feeling and I will always value the people i have met here, in our little 4 month New Zealand 2010 world we made and shared together, a world will never be the same again!

Tonight was girls night. An amazing, fun, much needed event! It kicked off with Hanna, Anette, Phylicia, Evelyn, Laura, Kirsten, Marlene, and I meeting at my cottage and then us all walking down to Namaste, the Indian restaurant down the street, to get take away for dinner. After the wait, and the walk home, we put on the first Sex and The City movie and chowed down on our yummy dishes. We didn't make it all the way through it, because it's actually ridiculously long, before we had to call for taxis and head down town to catch the 8:10 showing of SATC2!

We went to the classy theater, on the 2nd floor of the center place mall, where they are decked out with chandeliers, fancy carpet, embroidered reclining seats and crazy curtains and mirrors. It was the perfect place to watch such a glamourous movie, and with such a fine group of ladies! 

We got some beverages; ranging from coffees, to beers, to the cliche cosmopolitans, and a few treats and then headed into the movie... I wont go into details on what happened in it, in case anyone wants to see it, but all will admit that it was all i was expecting. It was funny, girly, fashionable and entertaining, but at the same time, definitely ridiculous, over the top, and little stupid. But overall, I loved it and loved spending time with my good friends even more.

When my friends Jess and Sara were here in town a few weeks ago, one night we decided to check out the casino! I have never been to a casino, always being under 21 when I was in the U.S., so we thought it was be fun just to see what it was like.

As soon as we got there, we were told, actually more like yelled at, that we couldn't take pictures inside the casino and that we had to erase any that we had taken. I thought this was rather strange, and wondered why we werent allowed to take pictures. I joked that maybe it was an illegal casino... But it's not, and we enjoyed our short stay there, and actually got away with a couple pictures (don't tell anyone!)

The "Number 8 wire mentality", a concept present within Kiwiana, holds that anything can be made or fixed with basic, everyday materials; or simply using what is at hand, such as number 8 fencing wire. This can-do mentality is a quality people hereabouts in NZ tend to have, and I think it's so great!

With this mentality as it’s inspiration, The Art Post, the art gallery and shop adjacent to the Hamilton Museum, is currently featuring a show displaying a recent competition, requiring artists to use the number 8 wire as a medium for works of art. It was a really neat show with extremely creative uses of the medium, and many of the pieces were really interesting…

I have really grown a fondness for this way of thinking, and think that it's a really cool concept because of where it came from. The fact that it is based on the integrity, durability, and versatility of a simple material like fencing wire, makes it really natural and homemade way to conceptualize being hardworking and having persistent integrity. I hope to hold onto this mentality and use it in my own life.

After picking Hanna up in Auckland on Friday evening, and after sharing a wonderful and full of laughter and screaming reunion, we did a little walk around downtown Auckland and had dinner at a Tapas restaurant. Then we decided to head back to Hamilton, instead of staying the night up there, because we were both so tired. Hanna fell asleep shortly into me showing her a few songs I've learned on the guitar. I think she was lullabied to sleep... It was so cute.

The following day, we did a little shopping and exploring of downtown. We went to Casabella Lane in the center of the city for lunch, and then to Salvation Army, Pack and Save for some food (mangables) and then to the Hamilton Lake; but it was raining so we didn't walk around it.

The other day, after I returned home from the white water rafting trip to Rotorua, I headed back out again to go to Raglan for the afternoon and evening for a little camping/ surf trip. We left Orchard Park around 4 or so and drove west to the coast, watching the sunset. It was perfect evening to be going to Raglan!

We decided to go straight to Manu Bay and have a little super there, watching the surfers and enjoying the sunset.

Yesterday, Anette, Phylicia, Evelyn, Alex and I went to Rotorua to go White Water Rafting! We got up really early and hit the road around 8 am to drive out and meet our guides in Rotorua at 9:30.

When we arrived, we paid for our portions of the tour, $80 each for a group of 5, and picked out proper sized wetsuits, booties and helmets. Then we piled in the van, towing the huge raft, and drove for 20 minutes out to the river put-in. 

We were taught instructions and code words, etc for what to do on the river and then got in. The river was a decent size and at many point had pretty strong rapids. Each one had a funny name, like "The American Dream". 

The main event of the trip was the 7 meter water fall we would be going over. Everyone was a little nervous, but mostly excited about it. We had our procedure down pretty well for what to do as we made the drop and so we went for it!

New Zealand housing styles are pretty similar to those in other western countries like the U.S. and Canada. I decided to give you a little peak at some examples of the cool designs I've come across during my time here with a mostly Photo oriented blog...

Well first of all, this is my cottage. It's simple and I love it, but now that it's winter, I really wish we had a little insulation...

Everyday houses around Hamilton and around where I leave near campus look similar to those back home. Here are a few examples...

Architecture in town can vary a lot also, there are plenty of regular western looking boxy buildings like you see everywhere else, as well as some European looking structures as well.

Lastly, one house in particular that I've had the pleasure to see was a boat house. Yes, not a house boat, but a boat-house. I thought it was pretty inventive!

Distance puts a major weight onto interpersonal relationships. Whether they be romantic, friendships, sibling relationships, or parent/child, distance makes things more difficult. The main “thing” that creates this difficulty is communication and how communication changes when more distance is placed between the relationship’s two parties. It’s all about effort. Being willing to go out of your way to communicate. These days we have email, facebook, skype, cell phones, and even the old school way of sending a paper LETTER, something I really enjoy doing for my loved ones.

In terms of romance, distance is usually a horrible idea. I’m just being honest and little blunt, but it seems to be true. If distance and a long time apart, never ‘seeing’ each other, don’t completely destroy the relationship, then it puts so much stress and tension on it that both people involved have to be incredible strong to make it work. They have to possess the patience and courage to just suck it up and get through it. That takes a certain kind of connection, trust, and all together, a certain kind of person. If both people don’t both feel the same way, and are both willing to work for it, then it collapses. I have friends here with boyfriends or girlfriends waiting back in their home countries, who are doing just that. I know that they’ve struggled, had times where it got a little rough, but they are strong enough and are in love enough to wait it out. I really admire that.

My sister, who is also my best friend, and I have gone through many periods of being apart. I went away to college as a freshman 500 miles away from home, in South Carolina; a 9-hour drive. We would go months at a time apart and then see each other, and our relationship would be exactly the same. Then she went abroad, to Senegal for 7 months, and still when she returned we were just as close, if not closer. When we are apart it’s pretty hard and I miss her like crazy, but we still communicate almost daily and without effort. I just love her and enjoy talking to her about ANYTHING, that it’s not a hassle to put in that extra time and effort. We truly have a unique relationship that will never change.

I miss my entire family so much. I email, facebook, and call my Dad, Mom, brother and sister as often as I can, but it’s still not enough. I could never move somewhere permanently that’s as far away from my home as New Zealand. Being here has made me realize what is most important to me and what I value above all else. And that is my family. I cherish my home, the towns I am familiar with and my way of life there. This experience has forced me to be more adult and stand solely on my own two feet. I’ve had to budget, plan, etc. I think returning home will be a nice reminder of what my life is all about. The reunion with my family and then returning to school to knock out my degree, are just the next couple steps in my life full of challenges and joys.

It's June 7th- exactly one month until I fly back to my home on the other side of the world. I have been here for nearly 3 and 1/2 months, and somehow life here also feels like home, in some strange way. I feel like February was so long ago, and I have done so much, and grown so much, here. I have definitely gone through the cycle that's every student going abroad is warned about...

HONEY MOON! Everything's new and awesome and everything you do couldn't be more exciting!

HOMESICKNESS! Suddenly you release how far away you are and you miss home like crazy! The once awesome and exciting things about this new culture start to be bothersome or annoying... You really just miss what you are familiar with.

ASSIMILATION! After a while, you aren't too bothered by things anymore, you find a respect and comfort in them and you start to feel like you're part of the culture. Leaving soon started to feel bittersweet...

I'm getting very, very excited to go home, but at the same time I wish that this experience didn't have to end and that all the places I've seen and people I've met, didn't have to be turned into memories and facebook relationships.