{"id":2833,"date":"2012-09-19T02:53:14","date_gmt":"2012-09-18T14:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auip.wordpress.com\/?p=2702"},"modified":"2012-09-19T02:53:14","modified_gmt":"2012-09-18T14:53:14","slug":"student-perspective-new-zealand-taught-student-more-about-herself-than-she-ever-imagined","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/student-perspective-new-zealand-taught-student-more-about-herself-than-she-ever-imagined\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Perspective: New Zealand taught student more about herself than she ever imagined"},"content":{"rendered":"

Katie McCoy, the <\/em>Illinois Abroad<\/a><\/em> marketing intern, writes:<\/em><\/p>\n

Kia ora! That\u2019s a friendly greeting spoken by the M\u0101ori people, the indigenous people of New Zealand<\/a>. Last summer, for 24 days I was lucky enough to experience New Zealand, its culture, its people, and its adventures, first-hand. I went on a program called New Zealand \u2013 Adventure Recreation and Tourism<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When I was there, I learned more about myself than I ever imagined I would. I learned that I can totally hike for eight hours one day and then wake up and hike for another four hours the next. I learned that it is extremely easy to become as close as family with complete strangers in a very short amount of time. I learned that I can challenge myself and push myself further than I ever thought I could go. New Zealand taught me these things.<\/p>\n

Of course, I also learned a lot about New Zealand itself. New Zealand is roughly the same size and population as the state of Colorado<\/a>. Its indigenous people, the M\u0101ori, are greatly respected and admired and heavily influence the culture. New Zealand is home to many indigenous species, only one of which is a mammal, and no natural predators. The entire country cares a great deal about the environment and goes to great lengths to make sure it is protected. New Zealand is a country that is passionate about rugby<\/a> \u2013 much like Americans are passionate about our football. New Zealand\u2019s main exports include sheep and dairy products, which means they have excellent cheeses (which I miss very much).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Now let me tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Katie McCoy. I am a senior in Psychology and Communications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign<\/a>. In my spare time I enjoy reading, baking, doing crafts, hanging out with my friends and watching bad reality TV. I am so excited to begin this journey and help other people with their decision to experience New Zealand and its amazing culture and people.<\/p>\n

So, kia ora!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Katie McCoy, the Illinois Abroad marketing intern, writes: Kia ora! That\u2019s a friendly greeting spoken by the M\u0101ori people, the indigenous people of New Zealand. Last summer, for 24 days I was lucky enough to experience New Zealand, its culture, its people, and its adventures, first-hand. I went on a program called New Zealand \u2013 Adventure Recreation and Tourism. When…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,7,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2012-13-interns","category-new-zealand","category-student-perspective"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2833\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}