My first term with TGS has come to an end. It was so much more than I could have ever expected from three months. I was able to see and do so much of the tiny country from the Waitomo Glowworm Caves, the sulfurous remains of White Island, snorkeling of Rock the Boat in the Bay of Islands, phosphorescent algae in the clear blue waters, sailing in the City of Sails, visiting Hobbiton, and of course seeing lots, and lots of sheep. Now I could talk about all of the amazing new friends I made, but to save time, I'm going to focus on what I actually learned from my experience in New Zealand.
The very first weekend of TGS, we stayed overnight at a Maori family's home, specifically in their wharenui. They showed us how they cook their food underground, taught us how to Haka and how to use their weapons, such as the poi balls. It was a truly educational opportunirty and I learned so much about the Maori culture.
I definitely learned how to take adventage of the place I am in. The projects that we did required us to go out of our comfort zones and use the information all around us. We set up interviews for our Environmental Issues papers in Global Issues and then presented our findings to the citizen of the Auckland. I worked with Danielle and Ayesha for this project and we studied the affects of the ozone layer and then shared that information with a fifth grade class at the school across from our hotel. The kids seemed very interested, expecially since we brought prizes for the Jeopardy game. It was also very fun to see the little kids who joined us for soccer every once and a while in their classroom setting.
These were only two of the TGS projects which taught me about the country we were in, but we also learned so much about the history and forests through tours. We especially were taught the impotance of the kauri trees and the unique environments of the land of the Kiwis.
