Ever since I made the decision to study abroad in New Zealand, sharing my plans with others has been met with a variety of responses. Most frequent was intensely jealous well-wishing, but a number of times people would scoff a bit and say, “That’s not studying abroad. That’s a vacation!” It’s a response I partly understand, especially since meeting a good number of American students who fully intend to spend the semester tramping through the bush and bungee jumping. New Zealand is a pretty ideal place for a vacation (I confess that I’m dying to go skiing and surfing on the same day), but usually I would justify my decision by mumbling something about my English major and postcolonial literature.

Fortunately, plenty of people were actually interested in my reasons for heading off to New Zealand and supportive of studying abroad in general. Flying home from winter break, I was seated across from a guy who took interest in my plans without making me feel like a slacker for choosing a location without old cathedrals or medieval universities. Studying abroad, he said, was a valuable experience regardless of destination. Any time you step away from your American bubble to experience how others see the world is worthwhile, especially if you return with a new perspective on your home. He wasn’t just railing against the current state of the U.S. Actually, he may have been, since he mentioned repeatedly how he was learning to live in the woods in case his Capitol Hill neighborhood bit the dust in the impending nuclear apocalypse, but that’s beside the point. Airplane Guy just agreed with me that everyone should have the opportunity to experience a different culture, and that’s something even the most insane bungee jumping enthusiasts I’ve talked to are eager to do.

Regardless of how similar it seems to home or paradise on the surface, New Zealand is neither. After a week in Wellington, I’ve enjoyed noticing the little differences like unusual foods (I’m still trying to figure out what hokey pokey is) and Kiwi-speak (the post title means “hello from New Zealand” in Maori, roughly). On the other hand, I’ve also learned what happens when you don’t heed Andrew Alberg’s advice about looking right then left when crossing the street. Hint: You get hit by a bike, but that’s a story for my next post.