No Longer Chillin', In Fact The Virus Has Stomped On Me

Yeah so obviously I spoke too soon, as I am writing this from my room in Indiana and not my room in Auckland. I submitted the last post I wrote on a Sunday, and on Thursday of that week, the email came. 

We were waiting for our food in this really good (and expensive) cafe Thursday morning, and everyone’s phones buzzed with the notification from IES Abroad. The Auckland program was canceled. We had to go home. Some of us had already been called back by their universities, but for the rest of us, it was the last thing we wanted to see. I think the worst part about getting it then was it happened right before our food came so I was crying while I was eating my lamb sausage. It was probably the best sausage I’ve ever had in my life, so maybe I was crying because it tasted so good. Yeah, that’s why. The other worst part was that I had an assessment (basically a quiz) later that day, so I still had to go to class and take that puppy (it was easy thankfully).

Getting the news was nice, in a way. Once people started getting pulled from the program, we were all waiting to hear from our schools, wondering who was going to be next. It was kind of stressful just waiting for the inevitable early end and waking up wondering if you were going to get the email today. I knew deep down I probably wouldn’t get to stay the whole time, but deluding yourself is easy, fun, and costs no money, so I did.

After that day everything started moving by so fast. Getting flights was kind of chaotic since a lot of other US citizens were trying to back too and flights kept getting canceled left and right. The flight I ended up getting was for Sunday, so I only had three days between getting the news and having to go home. I think I spent the most amount of money in a short time than I ever have because there was still so much I wanted to do (okay really just a lot of food I wanted to eat). The last few days were really good, though, since we did a lot of things we had been meaning to but hadn’t done. We went out for ramen and Korean and went to these botanical gardens and my host family took me to this really cool beach. And then it was over. I was in New Zealand for thirty days.

I’ve been home for a week and a half now. I really haven’t done much besides distract myself with Animal Crossing. Honestly, I’ve put off writing this post because it means that study abroad really is over. Heck, I’m even sad about this blog being over. I was excited to write a food post (I already had enough material for one) and talk about my host family and all the little things that are different over there. Alas. 

I’m sure I’ll go back someday, so I guess it’s just a matter of waiting. Until then Stay Inside y’all. Thanks for reading my ramblings.