Last Post

I’ve officially returned to the USA!  I’ve been home for about three weeks now, and I have been going non-stop.  My flights – Wellington to Auckland to L.A. to Atlanta – were perfectly fine.  No major delays, no crying babies, comfortable seats, etc.  I had some issues with the food on some of the flights, but nothing too terrible.  I arrived in Atlanta fairly late in the evening, but I still had a nice greeting party waiting for me.  My parents were both there, along with five of my good friends.  It was really great to see close friends after being on a plane for something like 24 hours and in another country for nine months.  I wasn’t jetlagged at all, and I didn’t have any trouble fitting back in to my social circles or with my family.  I did have some trouble adjusting back to southern food and driving on the right side of the road, but I am working on those things.

Once I got on the ground, I didn’t stop to relax at all.  I had some business to take care of in Atlanta before I headed home to Dalton, and the next morning I was already working on getting my Chinese visa arranged.  I was home for only two days before leaving on another trip as well.  I arrived home on a Thursday, and my home university’s spring break was the following week, so I went down to St. Pete Beach, Florida, for five days of relaxation with some of my sorority sisters.  It was a week of sleeping in, lying on the beach or by the pool, and eating good food.

After that week, I had to go back to reality.  Since I have been gone for a year and am about to spend ten weeks in Southeast Asia and China, I have a lot of doctor’s appointments and checkups to deal with.  I had four in just one week!  It’s kind of complicated to get all of my doctors in agreement and all of my vaccinations straight, but it is worth it to be going to Asia in forty days.

One of the best things about being back is that I have started giving all of my post-return speeches.  I have given a program to the Ringgold Rotary Club and have plans to go to the Dalton Sunrise Club as well as the Dalton Club, my sponsor club.  I have spoken to the United Methodist Women’s club, and they were really receptive to my pictures and travel stories.  I also spoke to my old high school government teacher’s classes about the New Zealand political system and how and what I studied in New Zealand.  That was also a good opportunity to get potential scholars (a.k.a. high-school-to-university-student) interested in the scholarship.

And that brings me to the end of my scholarship year.  This is my last official post from my time in New Zealand.  I have a blog to cover my time in Asia, and it can be found at http://asiascholar.blogspot.com.  It hasn’t been started, and I am not sure yet how to work it from China, but I will be using it to document my 10 weeks of study in Asia.  Thank you for reading this throughout my year, and I hope you get a chance to go to New Zealand and Australia some day.