Made it to Columbus!

But my luggage did not.... last seen in LAX :/ 

Last day of work

Last bus ride to work 

A photo of a cool building downtown. 

Starting to get very sad about leaving, temporary life-change depression I call it. I also despise moving all my stuff from place to place, so packing this week, even though its very little things, has made me quite angry. But I am sad to be leaving all my new found friends here, the routine my life has become, and of course the beautiful surroundings. I'd like to hope i'll be able to come back someday if I can ever save up enough money for another flight over.. There is still so much I would like to see and experience here. Leaving friends is always hard too. 

In other news, Mount Tongariro erupted yesterday, I think it was one of the sites used in the LOTR movies or something, but everyone is all in a frenzy here about it. I don't think many were injured though it is a popular tourist destination this time of the year. Here is a photo from the interwebs

Pretty cool 

Today is my last day at Weltech working here, we went out for a nice lunch yesterday at a BBQ place in town (it was super messy and American, which is why I wanted to go there :D ), a good time, food was alright. 

This will be my last post from NZ, I go offline after work today then fly out Saturday afternoon (Friday night for you all) and get back into the states Saturday night and start the get readjusted to the time difference process again :/ 

Thank you, as always, for reading and keeping up with my adventure here :) Its been great and I look forward to where life takes me next.. 

With this being a very sad last week in beautiful Aotearoa, I have decided to post my final paper for my academic program with my reflections about being an international intern, stereotypes of Americans abroad, and the cultural obsession of chasing the American dream. Its not the most brilliantly written piece of literature, but a lot of thought and observation went into it. A bit of a read, but here for your enjoyment should you chose to indulge. 

Google Doc Link

Enjoy! 

Rotorua Weekend - 2

More photos from the Rotorua weekend 2 weeks ago: 

Exploring Lake Okareka on Saturday afternoon, it got quite warm and I was wearing long sleeves and wool! 

Cass and I birdwatching

Old people just do the cutest things, we couldn't help but take pictures

Looking out at the Tarawera valley, those mountains in the background erupted just over 100 years ago and destroyed all the towns in the area as well as covered the Pink and White terraces, one of New Zealand's wonders of the world. 

This is what they were supposed to look like years ago. 

being natural hot pools, people used to come to bathe in them. Its crazy to think how the eruption covered so much history. They're currently trying to uncover them. 

We went to this pretty funky cafe for lunch on sunday

Plane ride back, air New Zealand just knows how to do things right. 

Another Wellington coastal picture! 

Rotorua Weekend - 1

Hello! I feel like i'm getting behind in updating this, partially because I have to re-size all my photos now because blogger is being silly, but mostly because we have actually been significantly busy at work the past 2 weeks and I've had a lot to do.

As my time her in New Zealand quickly winds down, I have to say that I am excited to get back to America, there are a lot of things and people that I miss. Also, all the Kiwi's and Europeans that I work with won't make fun of "my accent" anymore! Joy. And Mexican food. Anyways... 

This past weekend I flew up to Rotorua, the volcanic, Maori center of good ol NZ to meet up with one of Kelly's friends, Cassandra. 

"Sweet as, bro" definitely the theme of the weekend. Saw these T shirts at the airport and had they not been $50, would have totally got one.

Wellington is being transformed into Middle Earth right now for the Hobbit premiere in two weeks, right after I leave. This is a huge installation sculpture in the airport's main terminal. It was on the news here, done by the Weta Cave people and probably to welcome all the international guests flying in to see the movie here. 

Its my city! From the airplane ride, another prop plane but a steady flight. We flew right over the harbor and where I work in Petone. 

Sommes Island in the Bay

This is Porirua, where I was last weekend. 

Volcanoes from the plane, its so lovely to fly on a clear day. 

Lake Rotorua! 

After arriving and meeting Cass, we met up with her sister and went to the gondola up the mountain to do some street luge!

I felt cool like my Dad, he had done the luge when he went through Rotorua too. 

Dinosaurs along the track

Cass on the Chairlift back up

Lake Rotorua

I really liked the cafe area at the top of the gondola. They had a jellybean museum at the top of the gondola too! It was pretty cool 

???

That had to take hours. 

After that Cass took me out to a little known place, Hangarua Springs, beautiful clear lakes and tropical surrounding next to a redwood forest! 

See the gigantic trees was so humbling.

The spring, pennies have been found in there over 100 years old.

We stopped at a wildlife reserve too. 

Babies! 

Can you tell I'm really tired? haha, the advantages of having your body trained to a 10 week schedule for the past 4 years, really really tired at the end but prepared for a big push of final work before a deadline. Hopefully I can get some rest this.... Sunday and have a great final week in this beautiful country. 

Mumford and Sons!

Last night was the Mumford and Sons concert here in Wellington! I was so excited to go, some of my friends had tickets to the Black Keys also in Wellington, so I headed off to the Town Hall after work by myself to get there early and stand in line ^_^ Upon getting in and purchasing my concert t shirt (eeeee!!!!!!) I immediately headed in to claim my sport up front by stage. One good thing college has taught me is how to stand up in the same place for a very long time, so the 2 hours until Mumford and Sons took stage went by quickly and painlessly. 

The stage looked really cool, and I was excited to be in the Town Hall! Lots of historic events have taken place here, cool to be in the same presence. 

The first band, The three B's, this quirky little kiwi band, were pretty good. They had nice harmonies and the girl played the trumpet! very cool. 

Two super drunk chicks pushed their way into the front at this point, and me along with the mom and her two sons, and the nice couple to my left, got them ejected. Worth it! 

The second band, Sarah Blasco, was very strange. Aussie, she had a very dark bluesy sound, kinda reminded me of the new lead singer in the group Nightwish, but also of that kind of seemly happy but oddly dark music in the sims when you were in the building stage and decorating the house. Anyone remember the sims? Some of that music was underlyingly creepy. Anyways, after all of that, Marcus Mumford, Finally! 

(end of Little Lion Man) 

At one point they came out front, turned off all the mics and speakers, and just sang. It was beautiful. 

The Cave, encore performance!

They were honestly so much better live than their CD. The acoustics in Town hall were great, I had such a good time there. Look mom, earplugs! 

I took a couple videos but am pretty sure they're too big to upload here.