MY LAST WEEK

Time flies so fast. They say that time flies so fast when we are having fun.  I don’t realize that I’ve been in New Zealand for almost eight months, what an amazing time and next week is going to be my last week. I always remember that 24th of September 2016 was the first time I arrived in New Zealand. I clearly remembered I was welcomed by a heavy rain and cold weather. I thought that I would be able to see the beautiful sunshine and I had no idea that I would be welcomed in that kind of weather. But I was lucky because people said that I arrived just a few weeks after the cold session had ended which means I missed the winter. Even it had passed but I still felt cold, I felt like I was in a fridge, maybe because I was Indonesian and in Indonesia, we just had two sessions: summer and rainy session which not that kind of extreme.

The weather was only one of the difficulties The another was the language ability. I remembered I just arrived at the airport when I found there was none who would pick me up to the place where would I stay. For a few times, I just prayed, hoping that somebody would come to pick me up. I Had been waiting for one and a half hour when an old man came closer and started to talk to me. He had probably seen me got confused when I arrived and that was why he tried to offer a hand. But because I was so nervous it caused me couldn’t understand what he said. Later I tried to force myself to talk with an old lady nearby. She asked me to phone my family with the public telephone near the waiting room. But first I needed to find a coin in order I could communicate with that kind of telephone. I just finished changing my money when an Indonesian guy who was assigned to pick me up arrived.

We drove to the Glendowie in the heavy rain. Though the rain was so heavy I could still enjoy the stunning view along the way to the home. I was so impressed by how clean it was. Even there were still some rubbish like plastics and papers but it was nothing if I compared to what I had experienced in Indonesia. During the trip, I was wondering and asking myself why there were no motorcycles on the road. For more than one hour I just saw a few motorcycles which were nothing as well if I wanted to compare with my country. Later I found the reason why there were just a few motorcycles. It was not only because a car was much safer than a motorcycle but also it was because the weather which always changed very quickly, so for a safe and comfortable travel better to drive a car.

I had a week of free time. It was a very short time to make an adjustment with New Zealand’s weather before I started my course. During the first the first week I went to visit and had a look to some beautiful places like One Three hill and Mount Eden where I could enjoy a stunning view of the city. I was surprised after I knew that those kind of mountain which seems like hills in Indonesia had used to be a volcano long long time ago. I could still see a big cauldron in mount Eden, but I had no idea that it used to be a volcano. Later I found a surprising and amazing fact from my teacher that New Zealand were surrounded by a lot of volcano and it was placed on the fire ring which if I thought it was same with Indonesia as well.

I not only tried to manage with the unpredictable weather which always changed but I had to manage with the food as well. I had been raised with rice by my family and I used to have rice for my breakfast, lunch and dinner. I could have a big bread or a full bowl of noodle but it would be enough without rice. Therefore, rice would be the main meal. However, since I arrived in New Zealand I had to try something different. It was weird and strange to have potato and bread for my meal but like the saying said when you in Rome, I tried to adjust with that kind of food. I realized that my time in New Zealand was kind of food adventure. Here I had a big opportunity to try any kind of food with a unique taste, like Indian curry, Japanese sushi and wasabi, Korean noodle, tom yang from Thailand and many more.

After a week, I had to start my course. I remember we were welcomed by Rachael and Paul. On the first day, with some other new students we just took a placement test. Because I got enough result I was placed in the 400 class. It was a good class with a combination of 8-10 students. Some were Japanese, Koreans, Colombians, Brazilians and Arabs and my first teacher was Annika. It was interesting to learn in that kind of class with a such great student and such a nice and smart teacher. Even though it was difficult for at the first time, but my teacher and my friends made it became easy for me. They helped me to feel comfortable in the classroom.

I was lucky lived in this kind of city where I learned not only English but culture as well. The last was one of the things that made Auckland was known as a multicultural city. It was true because here we could find people from different countries and cultures easily and the thing that made it was amazing was they lived together in harmony. In every corner of the city, at the public places, we will easily find a group of people from different culture hang up together, enjoying a bottle of beer while listening nice songs from busking singers with their unique instruments. Clearly, Everybody has a same opportunity and right. As long as you well behave, treat people as you hope to be treated and have a good English and education you will have a same opportunity to get a job.

Last year before we started our E-Learning, a program that mainly rely on the internet, we had one hour break time for lunch and during that time I used to spend 45 minutes of my time walked around this city to do exercise and to help me to get now with this lovely city as well. I used to walk to Albert park, Victoria park and Waitemata Harbour to see many different ships and boats over there. Some of them are old boats which still work well. Things I loved from this activity was that no one realized me as a new people. As I said before, this city was filled with a lot of people from different countries and different cultures and it made every one including me felt like I had been living here for a long time.

I loved  this city and I loved learning English at CCEL because I had feel like I was living in a small family where everyone tried to support and encourage one another to be good at English. It was amazing because every body realized that none of us was perfect at English and it made us to be able to learn English without thinking about made a mistake. I loved spending time with students from other countries because it helped me to improve my English and I could learn a different culture as well.

As I mentioned before, time flies very fast and this week is going to be my last week. After eight months, sometimes I feel like I didn’t make a progress, that my level of English is the same, but for sure now I become more confident to speak, especially with the native speaker and it is easy to understand when I listen and reading some English news. Those things were difficult for me before I came here. I used to be nervous to speak with a native speaker but now I find it is easy even though I still make a mistake but it is ok as long as they can understand.