I have friends!

I’m not all alone.

Orientation for international students started today and I got to meet a lot of people here who were in similar situations as myself. There were a lot of us here from the US, and there must have been well over a hundred international students in total. The biggest nationality represented was China, with about half of all international students being Chinese.

I spent the day saying “Hi, what’s your name?” “Where are you from?” and “What are you studying” and then answering those questions as well. In doing so I got to meet a lot of interesting people. Among my experiences today I made friends with British guy who was also named Andrew and also a physics major. I sat next to a girl from Colorado during the orientation lecture, and when I told her that the university I go to is run by my church denomination she invited me to a bible study here that she was somehow connected with. Sweet.

Everyone I met here couldn’t wait to get out on the weekends to go do all of the outdoor activities New Zealand is so famous for. Honestly, when I decided I wanted to go to New Zealand I had no idea just how outdoorsy the country is. I knew it had beautiful mountains, but I never knew how outdoor oriented life here is. Throughout the semester I am going to have opportunities to go snowboarding, hiking, white-water rafting, kayaking, bungee jumping, biking, mountain biking, and some sport where you roll down hills in a giant ball. I’ll have to look into that last one.

Tomorrow we have another day of orientation and we get to go out to a farm and then into town. Sounds interesting.