My second month update: (11.09.19 – 25.09.19)
Jannik Michel
In my second month I´ve had more new and exciting experiences, like visiting the ̈Blow hole¨ in Tauranga, a tour through the glow-worm caves in Waitomo, my first orientation, a really funny mascot run and the visiting of „Wicked”.
On the 11th September I went on a trip together with all the other international students from the Otumoetai College. We started early in the morning and had a 2 hours bus ride before we started our tour through the caves. Especially the boat trip through the caves with about 20.000 Glow-worms was really impressive and exciting for me. After the cave trip we visited the Kiwi house in Otorohanga, where we had a short presentation about the Kiwi birds, and the Kiwi house. I saw my second Kiwi bird in my live and we had the chance to see a lot more native New Zealand birds, fishes and reptiles. This day was a great experience for me, because I saw a completely different part of the New Zealand nature and I found some new international friends.
From the 13th to the 15th September I had my first RYE-Orientation at the Mi-Camp next to the lake Taupo. It was a wonderful weekend, I met all the other In- and Outbound students and made a lot of new friends. When we arrived, I was immediately completely involved and had to go on the stage to see how Michael (the Outbound student who goes to Germany next year) learned German. He did it well! I had a really nice night and a lot of fun with playing cards and before we went to bed, I learned of their “Wonderwall”, and “Bohemian Rhapsody” performance, that the outbound students cannot sing! After the not really good breakfast, I went together with the other Inbounds on a rainy hike through beautiful nature to the Taranaki Falls.
We had a lot of fun and amazing views up to the mountains with snow. Also, the trip to the ski fields was amazing and the first time in the snow for the Brazilian girls in their lives.
In the evening we saw a really good performance of a Haka group and tried to dance our first Haka, which was actually much harder than I thought it would be. We got all the most important information about the South Island trip, and I am really looking forward to do this amazing trip with all these wonderful people!
On the 20th September, I helped the Rotary Club to register the runners for the marathon on the next day. The organizer, asked the Rotary Club, if there are any volunteers for the Mascot run on the 21th. Paul signed me and himself in. Before the run, Paul and I went to the beach and I am really looking forward to go swimming! Rachel did the 21k run in 2 hours and Paul and I did the Mascot run which was about 200 metres (Paul was an electric toothbrush, and I was a Marshmallow). It was a wonderful day, a lot of fun and the best weather since I´ve been here.
The last and fantastic event this month was the visit of the musical “Wicked” in the Bay court community & Arts Centre in Tauranga at the 25th September. The singing was fantastic, the acting was great and also the stage design was really good. Thank you Carmen, for this wonderful experience!
This month I settled in more and more, met more new and friendly people. I´m still really happy that I have the chance to be here and to make all these wonderful experiences. I'm really looking forward to my holidays and of course to my next time here in New Zealand.
