The everyday life in New Zealand

For me as a city kid, the adjustment from living in a big beautiful city to living in a small village where it takes at least an hour by bus to get to the nearest town was quite significant. However, you get used to it. It also has its advantages: You can take a walk in a quiet, green environment and simply enjoy the 'nature' anytime. Disadvantage: Every time you go out, you meet at least 2 people you know, for example from school. It's actually not a big deal, just a bit unusual for city kids and probably a bit uncomfortable. The schooling system in New Zealand is also very different, for example, there are no fixed classes like ours, but you have a separate class for each subject. In addition, school starts at 08:45 and ends at 03:05 (except Wednesday, because of Sportsday ->) What I probably find most pleasant is that starting from Year 12 (8th grade for us, here it's 9), students can choose their own subjects. This way, every student can pursue their own interests and doesn't have to learn things that don't interest them at all. If you choose the right subjects, you can also engage in a lot of physical activity at school, which I think is really great. I also like that the lessons (in some subjects) are very practical-oriented and often take place outside the classroom.

However, there are also some negative aspects: The teaching in almost all classes is competition-oriented. In a normal extent, that's surely good, but I think it's exaggerated here. For example, there are also separate 'Houses' in school where students are divided and then compete against each other. From my perspective and experience, all these competitions provide a good platform for bullying. I would say that bullying is a much bigger problem in my New Zealand school than in my school at home.

But I find the Sportsday at school praiseworthy. On this day, school ends almost an hour earlier and you have the opportunity to participate in various sports, all organized by the school. So you can choose from cricket, soccer, basketball, surfing, climbing, table tennis, football, rugby, and many other activities. This gave me the opportunity to learn how to surf and I have to say: It's definitely worth it!

You can also tell that I was lucky with my host family by the number of activities we do together. For example, they always take me camping at their own campground and wakeboarding with their own boat. So we are actually somewhere on the South Island at least every 2-3 weeks and we either go mountain biking, kayaking, or wakeboarding/waterskiing.

But what is everyday life in New Zealand actually like?
At first: Very unusual and every day is a small adventure when you, for example, take a day trip to the city. After a while, you get used to it and everyday life becomes more and more normal and due to the school, it is very structured and the same, but I wouldn't call it boring!