Just somethings I observed
New Zealand.
A rather different place is how I would describe it. On the outside, in the beginning, upon arriving I thought it was too much alike to the States. But now I know different...
Starting with the grocery store: They aren’t too different; they sell food, wine, and lotto tickets but New Zealand food just isn’t the same. Peanut butter taste like actual peanuts, jam is extremely sweet, and Doritos don’t even taste like Doritos, not that I was a huge Doritos fan in the first place. The fruit and vegies are delicious though; always fresh and they smell good but super expensive! Another thing that is expensive at the grocery is cheese! Yes, cheese. The cheapest cheese I can find is about $8 dollars for 500g which is about 1lb. And you can forget about anything pre shredded or cheese other than mild, chedder, and edam cheese! Alright enough about the food; oh home food how I miss you!
School: Massey University.
Small campus but easy to get around. The buildings are all connected in some way by sky bridge, tunnel or random stairwell, I often find myself leaving from a different building than I entered. Which isn't a problem really, just a bit confusing.
The professors or “lecturers” as they are called here, are more relaxed than I am used to. Ignoring ringing cellphones and showing up 13 mins after the class has officially started is normal here. Back home a person would be asked to leave for the day if their phone went off during class hours. For regular classes or “papers” as Kiwi students call them, meet only one time a week for an hour and then usually have a 2 hour “tuortial” some other time of the week where a “tutor” helps you with questions and goes more in depth with topics discussed earlier in the weeks lecture. You are more than welcome to use first names, I think someone may look at you weird if you called a lecturer Mr. Ming.
Classes are managed a bit differently as well. Here, we are given free study guides for each course, which describe each assignment is detail and give the grading requirements and also include the “out-of-the-book” readings. All of which is broken up by weeks. Oh yeah and did I mention we attend only 12 weeks each semester here and have a 2 week spring break?! (My second spring break of 2010 might I add =)
For each course you only have 2 assignments a semester, which are fairly large and then a final exam. The assignments are usually worth 30% each and then the final exam being worth the last 40%. A bit stressful knowing my grade hangs on only 3 tasks... but then again I don’t have any “busy” work or small assignments like at home. I’m not sure which bothers me less.
The Wellington campus also has a strong 80% female to 20% male ratio which I found a bit extreme. And I notice more and more non-traditional students in my classes. This may be due to my courses being mainly in Communications which is what a lot of older students come back to College for.
Laundry: It’s simple to understand the laundry concept while in New Zealand; wear what you can as much as possible before putting it in the dirty clothes basket. Laundry is about $6.00 a load= $4.25 American but their washers and drier are smaller as well.
Words of confusion: American/ Kiwi
College vs. Uni (college is apparently slang for high school here)
Cantaloupe/ Rock Mellon
Sweet/ Sweet as
Morgan/ Molgan
Overall the city as well as the campus are very design oriented, with posters, graffiti, and music everywhere. I like just walking around seeing distinct buildings and the awesome artwork. The only aspect I find hard to adjust to is crossing the street. Look RIGHT first not left! Oh yeah and drivers can’t turn on red here. A very strange concept to my Kiwi flatmates...
A rather different place is how I would describe it. On the outside, in the beginning, upon arriving I thought it was too much alike to the States. But now I know different...
Starting with the grocery store: They aren’t too different; they sell food, wine, and lotto tickets but New Zealand food just isn’t the same. Peanut butter taste like actual peanuts, jam is extremely sweet, and Doritos don’t even taste like Doritos, not that I was a huge Doritos fan in the first place. The fruit and vegies are delicious though; always fresh and they smell good but super expensive! Another thing that is expensive at the grocery is cheese! Yes, cheese. The cheapest cheese I can find is about $8 dollars for 500g which is about 1lb. And you can forget about anything pre shredded or cheese other than mild, chedder, and edam cheese! Alright enough about the food; oh home food how I miss you!
School: Massey University.
Small campus but easy to get around. The buildings are all connected in some way by sky bridge, tunnel or random stairwell, I often find myself leaving from a different building than I entered. Which isn't a problem really, just a bit confusing.
The professors or “lecturers” as they are called here, are more relaxed than I am used to. Ignoring ringing cellphones and showing up 13 mins after the class has officially started is normal here. Back home a person would be asked to leave for the day if their phone went off during class hours. For regular classes or “papers” as Kiwi students call them, meet only one time a week for an hour and then usually have a 2 hour “tuortial” some other time of the week where a “tutor” helps you with questions and goes more in depth with topics discussed earlier in the weeks lecture. You are more than welcome to use first names, I think someone may look at you weird if you called a lecturer Mr. Ming.
Classes are managed a bit differently as well. Here, we are given free study guides for each course, which describe each assignment is detail and give the grading requirements and also include the “out-of-the-book” readings. All of which is broken up by weeks. Oh yeah and did I mention we attend only 12 weeks each semester here and have a 2 week spring break?! (My second spring break of 2010 might I add =)
For each course you only have 2 assignments a semester, which are fairly large and then a final exam. The assignments are usually worth 30% each and then the final exam being worth the last 40%. A bit stressful knowing my grade hangs on only 3 tasks... but then again I don’t have any “busy” work or small assignments like at home. I’m not sure which bothers me less.
The Wellington campus also has a strong 80% female to 20% male ratio which I found a bit extreme. And I notice more and more non-traditional students in my classes. This may be due to my courses being mainly in Communications which is what a lot of older students come back to College for.
Laundry: It’s simple to understand the laundry concept while in New Zealand; wear what you can as much as possible before putting it in the dirty clothes basket. Laundry is about $6.00 a load= $4.25 American but their washers and drier are smaller as well.
Words of confusion: American/ Kiwi
College vs. Uni (college is apparently slang for high school here)
Cantaloupe/ Rock Mellon
Sweet/ Sweet as
Morgan/ Molgan
Overall the city as well as the campus are very design oriented, with posters, graffiti, and music everywhere. I like just walking around seeing distinct buildings and the awesome artwork. The only aspect I find hard to adjust to is crossing the street. Look RIGHT first not left! Oh yeah and drivers can’t turn on red here. A very strange concept to my Kiwi flatmates...
Campus views...
