Hello!
My name is Mike Goetz. I’m a junior at Indiana University studying computer science with minors in astrophysics and informatics. Since this is my pre-departure post, I’ll keep it relatively short. Soon I’ll be heading off to New Zealand, where I’m really not entirely sure what will become of it. On one hand, I get to leave the country to go to a completely new destination on another side of the world and I’ll get to experience so much. On the other hand, I’ll be in completely new surroundings where the culture, people, and way of life are different from my own.
I’m not scared or frightened, but rather curious about the whole experience and what will become of it. I’m interested in how Kiwi culture differs from that of the U.S.’s and I’m nervous about stepping out of my comfort zone. One thing that settles some of my apprehensiveness is knowing that I’m not the first person to go through with this, and that there are people that are willing to help me.
This experience is going to be a life-changing one (or at least that’s what everyone keeps telling me). I’ll miss my friends and family, but there’s only a (roughly) four month gap between seeing everyone again – which just happens to be the exact time frame for me to have the most awesome adventure ever!
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“Now, they say that New Zealand is beautiful and I do not know — because after 22 hours on a plane any landmass would be beautiful.” — Lewis Black, comedian