4/13/2006 - News from Sarah, participant currently in New Zealand
Hi, my name is Sarah Laurendeau and I’m in New Zealand with AFS since July 2005. It’s been already 8 months. All the participants who did the same experience as mine will agree that time goes by really fast during our year abroad. Why I chose AFS New Zealand? In fact, I wanted to improve my English and I didn’t know much about that country, besides that The Lord of the Rings had been filmed there. So I embarked on an unknown adventure! My life here consists of living with a host family : dad Garry, mum Pam, Rosie (17) and Tim (21) and attend a small catholic school of about 400 girls.
This is a big change in comparison with my old school back in Quebec. I miss boys at school!! We also have to wear a uniform, one different for Winter and Summer. It felt weird for the first month but I eventually got used to it and Ieven saw benefits from wearing a uniform. So, I’m doing well at school, I made good friends and I’m involved in many school activities. Last year, I joined the school Kapa Haka group. It’s a group who sings songs in Maori, which is part of the New Zealand culture. I also participated in big Dragon Boating competitions.
In February and March, I played in a theatre piece. It was with a private theatre company. We presented One Flew over the cuckoo’s nest. It was a very great experience, especially because I got the chance to act with professional actors and to put together a theatre piece like that in a environment other than school. It occupied almost all my evenings for more than 2 months and it also allowed me to meet new people. It was also a big challenge to play in a theatre piece in my second language.
I have nothing to complaint about my host family. I feel very lucky to live with them. It’s already difficult for AFS volunteers to find host families, so when they can make the perfect match, it’s super!
During the Christmas Holidays, I went camping in the south of the South Island, with my family and an AFS friend. We had two fantastic weeks. Landscapes here are incredible! I can still not believe how beautiful it is. While I’m here, I get the chance to meet other youths who are doing programs like me but with other organisations. I must say that AFS remains the best organisation. We have an AFS meeting every month with other youth living in the same area. Moreover, we have orientation camps organised, which allow us to tie bonds with other AFS students and to discover other parts of the country. We are very well supported. AFS is like a big international family where everyone helps each other. In October, at the beginning of my year, I participated in a 12-Day trip to the North Island along with 40 other AFS students from around the world. It was so cool. I swam with dolphins, went to the top of the Sky Tower in Auckland, did Black water rafting in underground caves, did Zorbing and learn more about kiwi culture and history.
In addition, I tried to surf : a sport extremely popular in New Zealand because of easy access to the Ocean wherever you are in the country. I also did 3-Days tramping on the West Coast with a friend and her host family. There are so many things left that I would like to do before going back to Canada. It’s difficult to imagine that I will have to leave the little world that I’ve built around me over the year.
I will come back to Quebec with lots of things in my luggage. Material things of course, but most important things that cannot be touched. All those experiences that I have acquired inside, the fact that I had to learn to know myself, all the people that I have met and lived unforgettable moments with. It can sound boring, but it’s true when I think about it. I really attached myself to a lot of people here and it will hurt to leave them. But, life is full of departures that we cannot control.
I will never regret to have gone one year to the other side of the world. An experience like this will remain inside me for the rest of my life.
Sarah
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