Epilogue

On January 28th, 2023, I left the United States to go on an adventure. I had no idea what to expect or how it would all go. I met up with my longtime friend Owen in the LAX airport and together, we flew to the other side of the world.

In Sydney, Australia, we saw the Opera House. We swam at Bondi Beach. We snorkeled and ate Açaí bowls. We ventured into the blue mountains. We had fun.

When Owen left to go back to North Carolina, I continued on to the center of the continent. I lived with a couple, held a baby kangaroo, experienced Uluru, saw desert birds and learned about life in the remote outback.

I flew down to Tasmania just in time for the wooden boat festival. I kayaked with Australian tourists, visited an island full of wombats, and embraced the city of Hobart.

New Zealand was the main destination of my time abroad. I arrived in Auckland just after the big cyclone had passed through. My Arcadia orientation leader took us to Rotorua where I saw sheep get sheared, experienced the geothermal springs and rolled down a hill in a plastic ball.

Upon my arrival in Wellington, I moved into a flat with four guys I had never met before. I joined the community of Everton Hall and attended numerous orientation events including a hike up Mount Victoria, an origami night, a tour of parliament and an Amazing Race around Wellington. I also made some wonderful friends from my Arcadia group. We cooked together and began our semester long exploration of the Wellington area.

I began taking courses (and learned that they were called papers), attended help desks and tutorials, and navigating the university life. I joined the Victoria University tramping club and went on my very first overnight hike. My friends and I arranged our own hikes in the area and explored all that Wellington had to offer from nature to comedy shows to ice cream. Arcadia Abroad hosted a trip to Abel Tasman where my group bonded as we kayaked and hiked together.

Halfway through my semester, my parents arrived for a visit during my break. I showed them around Wellington. We went to Zealandia and looked at birds. We ate a picnic with sheep. I introduced them to my friends and we all went to a light show.

A quick flight down to the south island exposed me to a whole new part of New Zealand. We explored the stunning beauty of Queenstown. My dad and I kayaked with sea lions on Stewart Island. We visited a hardware store full of motorcycles. And then, we met up with my sister Elina in Dunedin.

After visiting albatross and penguins on the Dunedin Peninsula, we flew up to Christchurch and took the train into the mountains of Arthur’s Pass for some epic hikes. In a whirlwind day at the end of my break, I showed Elina Wellington and everything that makes it so special.

Back in school, I was hard at work studying AI, drawing a children’s book and writing about media in New Zealand. I continued going to tramping club meetings and I joined the Everton futsal team. My friends and I attended a rugby game and attended comedy nights. I went to an escape room with my flatmates. Time ticked on.

Before I knew it, classes were ending. I went on one more tramping club adventure to a hut in the Tararuas and continued enjoying the wonderful city of Wellington.

Between classes ending and finals, I flew up to Auckland with four friends from Arcadia and we went to Hobbiton and explored Auckland. Then my friend Skye and I continued up to the Bay of Islands.

I returned to Wellington for a final week full of goodbyes, Kiwi sightings and lego dinosaurs before flying off to Hawaii.

In Hawaii, I surfed, took a trip up to Haleakala with a bunch of couples over the age of 50, snorkeled, ate shaved ice, walked up a crater, and learned how the pineapples are made.

Obviously, I did a whole lot more while I was gone. There’s a whole collection of blog posts to prove it!

So, as I got off the plane in Boston and retrieved my luggage, I felt so proud. I had done so much in those past five months. Each post in this blog highlights the different adventures I went on, challenges I faced, and new experiences I tried.

I grabbed my three backpacks, my suitcase and my pineapple and walked triumphantly out of Logan Airport.

I found my dad and he helped me load my stuff into the car and we drove home. The trees which were bare when I left in January were now full of green leaves. When I got back to Concord, I was greeted by a sweet note on the door.

I had arranged my flight home from Hawaii to land on the same day as a doctor checkup I had scheduled before leaving in January but amazingly I made it on time! I landed at 6:30am and I was at the doctor’s office at 10:00am. Later in the afternoon, I got to see my grandparents Marian and Irwin in person for the first time since I departed.

On Sunday, all my grandparents, my parents, Elina, Kaba and I got together for a Welcome Home celebration. I gave them all souvenirs from New Zealand and we served the pineapple I had brought home. It tasted very sweet and yummy.

Everything about being home felt so familiar. But at the same time, I had this feeling of disbelief that my study abroad experience was over. It had been an unknown event looming in the future for the past year and a half and suddenly it was in the past. I had learned and grown so much while I was away. I entered the study abroad experience thinking I’d get to learn about a new country and see some pretty sights but it was so much more than that. I got to become a part of a community across the world. I made so many amazing friends, learned how to shop and cook for myself, how to travel on my own, how to navigate living in a city and tried countless new things.

I’m not sure what comes next for me. I do know I’ve got a year more at Brandeis and I’m super excited to see all my Brandeis friends again soon! After that though, we shall see! I definitely hope to travel more in my future and I’m sure I’ll return to New Zealand one day!

Thanks for coming along with me on this adventure. I’ve appreciated all the comments I’ve received. Especially during the times I was traveling by myself, it was so comforting to know I had so much support back home. I hope you enjoyed reading these posts and looking at all the photos.

One day, far in the future, I hope to return to Wellington with my family, take them into Everton Hall and point to the framed photo of the 2023 Everton Residents in which I am featured. Because, I can forever say that for four months, I lived in New Zealand. Upside Down.