Sunlight streams through the highest windows in the Central Library, here in Dunedin. Sunlight, further testimony to a winter that has already faded towards spring. Away to the south and east, the ocean beckons, filling the air with that slight, yet vibrant, tang of the sea.

And so my seventh week in New Zealand nears its close. As I’ve become accustomed to the traffic patterns (meaning I largely ignore them), the student life, and even how to distinguish between British, Australian, and Kiwi accents (it’s all in the pronunciation of the Is and Es), I’ve taken care to pause every now and again for a bit of reflection.

I first decided to someday travel abroad during my middle years of high school, and bounced around ideas for several years before deciding on New Zealand. I am woeful at learning other languages, I wanted to go to a place very far away from my native Texas, and had no desire to travel to Britain, Australia, and Canada, as I felt that my friends had long since made such destinations clichéd. My parents refused to let me travel anywhere in Africa, so the only logical choice loomed by the start of my sophomore year in college, one year ago.

I dipped my figurative toe in the water, researching, asking questions, and after many weeks, I slapped myself for failing to recognize earlier the jewel that was New Zealand. This place had it all: diverse landscapes, each superlatively incredible, until you see the next one, at least; a wonderful indigenous culture that I could eagerly study; location in the Pacific Ocean, as far away from home as I could want; and lots and lots of people who spoke English. As my second year of college got underway, I met with my study abroad advisors, who recommended several options to me in terms of program providers. I eventually selected the Arcadia University Center for Education Abroad because of the number of support services they offered, both in preparation of and during my semester abroad. Since my home university (Rice University in Houston, Texas) makes it very, very easy to study abroad and allowed me to continue receiving all of my financial aid, it was a simple process and easier decision to secure permission and an application.

While there was a little more paperwork than I expected (no one ever tells you about stuff like that), I arrived in Auckland without incident on July 1, for the first time in my life, a foreigner, a visitor, an alien. And I was so exhilarated.

Thus began my days in New Zealand. During Arcadia’s orientation on the North Island, I went zorbing, visited a marae (a Maori village), a geothermal park, and even the town of Matamata, which most of you will know as Hobbiton from The Lord of the Rings. After a weekend of getting over jet lag that really wasn’t too bad in the first place, we traveled by plane to Dunedin, because it is a mistake to think it wouldn’t take long to get anywhere by car.

New Zealand was so cold; yes, it was winter, but it’s an island in the Pacific Ocean! Where were the frightfully cold nights of 60F? The palm trees? Shame on me for thinking in stereotypes, and shame twice for neglecting to realize just how close New Zealand is to a little place called Antarctica. But the winter was mild, and after many more travels, cultural goofs, and a lot of walking, we arrive at the present day.

Why am I here? Why study abroad at all? Because in moving from a small, rural Texas town to Rice University, I have expanded my horizons—and indeed, my purpose—more than I ever thought possible. So I figured going around the world is the best way to continue that personal growth. I know that visiting New Zealand for a semester won’t give me the answers to my life-shaking questions, nor will it necessarily provide me with some sort of transcendent self-insight. But I wish to study abroad not to check it off a list of things I’ve done, but rather to allow the experience to shape me in such a way that I’ll be able to better encourage and inspire others to aspire to their goals. In the end, I wish to study abroad not to help me achieve my dream, but just to help me dream. Perhaps I’ll spend my time in New Zealand, and nothing fantastic will happen. Perhaps I’ll be attacked by a rabid horde of penguins. Conjecturing on what might be is irrelevant. Yet if I have that slightest of chances of changing my world, changing Jonathan, then any length is worth going to.

I do, though, have a few goals. I’d like to perfect a Kiwi (term for New Zealander) accent, I would love to visit Fiordland and Milford Sound, I want to meet and be able to converse with people from all over the world, and attend a party in which I am one of a handful of people who speak English as a first language. I definitely need to learn how to swim, being on an island nation and all. I want to become more disciplined in my studies. (Hmm…I might have to first achieve “disciplined” before I can advance to “more disciplined.”) Most importantly, I want to inspire others, I’m eager to see what I can’t see, to realize what I don’t understand, and gain multifarious perspectives to be a better person, and do what I can to change this earth.

This is how it has begun. While you join me in the midst of my adventures, I’m still a newbie, out of his element on a multitude of levels. The next three months holds in its hands many things, most of all uncertainty. And that, I think, is the most exciting part. Here we go.

My name is Jon Jackson, and I am spending the first semester of my junior year at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand.



Zorbing is simple enough: all one needs is a big hill and a giant rubber ball. Throw in some water and a couple of friends, and you’ve got WetZorb, which feels a lot like a really long water slide.




The Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand. During the Arcadia orientation, we were taken to a marae, and this picture was taken during the moteatea (traditional chant) part of the pohiri (welcoming ceremony).




As we neared the city of Rotorua (known for zorbing and hot springs), we saw this weird hill-things; they're probably less than a hundred yards from the road, but apparently they are the results of ancient mini-volcanoes or something to that effect.