Document Actions
Alex's First Blog
Alex shares his reasons for choosing to study in New Zealand.
Alex in Seattle with his nephew Nicholas
Hey everybody!
My name is Alex Salkin. While I will soon be writing these blogs from the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, I’m currently in my hometown of Seattle, Washington, in the United States. I leave on my study abroad semester to Dunedin on the 13th of February, and until then I’m working in Seattle for some spare cash to, um, study abroad with.
So for now, while I don’t actually have anything new and exciting to tell you, I can just give you some of my background to get in the mood for my travels.
I’m a 22 year-old junior currently studying at Willamette University, a liberal arts college in Salem, Oregon. I’m majoring in anthropology there, and I actually only need a couple more credits to finish the anthro program— credits I’ll be taking while I’m abroad. I’m focusing in cultural anthropology, and I’m hoping to take several Maori studies classes. For those of you who don’t know, the Maori are the native population of Aotearoa (Maori name for New Zealand) who have retained an incredible sense of cultural identity through modern times. This is a major reason for my choice to study in New Zealand.
While my anthropology studies was a driving force for me to choose New Zealand, the most compelling reason for my choice was my previous experience with the country. I loved it. Let me tell you why I’m going back.
I took a year off after high school. At first I wasn’t going to, but after some heavy persuasion from my parents (and from everyone else I brought the subject up with. “Yes! You absolutely should take a year off!”) I started looking for prospective countries. My requirements: must be an English speaking country (I’d taken 2 years of French in high school, and couldn’t remember a single word), and it has to be travel-friendly enough so an 18 year-old can travel by himself for his first time without too many problems. After speaking to a neighbor who had traveled during my last year in high school, I settled on Australia and New Zealand. Both were English speaking countries, and both are pre-disposed to travel within their borders. The plan was to travel for 8 months: 4 months in each country. I signed up for the same program that my neighbor had, called WWOOF, or Willing Workers On Organic Farms (I heard somewhere that the name has changed since then). WWOOF lets you work on farms for a couple hours a day for room and board, so while you wont be making any money, you wont be losing any either. So with a single backpack, a plane ticket, and my life savings I left for Australia.
It was a blast. I fell in love with traveling as soon as I got there. I flew into Sydney, and after a week chartered a bus to head north up to Cairns. It took about 3 weeks to get there, but along the way North I took note of all the towns and cities I enjoyed, so on my way back down South I would stop at theses places and WWOOF for a couple of weeks. I had a great time traveling, met lots of great people, and before long my 4 months in Australia were over. I hopped on a plane to New Zealand and started the process over again.
My experience in New Zealand was different from Australia in several important ways- important to me, at least. First, in Australia, the majority of people live on the coast, so when one travels in Australia, it’s usually either North or South. This gives you a great opportunity to meet and travel with other backpackers, because they’re either going the direction you are, or they aren’t. I had a harder time with this in New Zealand as every traveler seemed to be going on a different route. Maybe I was so used to travel in Australia I didn’t adjust my travel methods to suit the new country. So I traveled solo for most of my time in New Zealand. Not surprisingly, my level of homesickness seemed to rise the more I traveled. This, along with the fact that my funds were running dangerously low, prompted my decision to cut my trip short. I spent only 2 months in New Zealand before I came home.
And this is the reason I’m coming back. While I was in New Zealand, I noticed that every single person I talked to was incredibly amiable and good-natured. I also had come to the decision that New Zealand was hands-down the most beautiful place I had ever visited. As a fellow traveler once said, "New Zealand has a shade of green that is more incredible than any other place in the world."
So when I had the opportunity to study abroad, I immediately chose New Zealand. I figured that having an actual place to live besides hostels and a sleeping bag would give me a chance to experience the country in a way I had originally hoped for.
I leave for Dunedin on February 13th, 2007. Expect another entry soon after that- I’m sure I’ll have plenty to tell you.
Keep in touch!
Alex
