In the Mind of Mike

Yesterday I had my first final. It was quite interesting. The whole environment was like how the SAT's are run. They had us wait outside the room then the proctors came out and read a little script telling us the rules. You had to bring all bags to the front and turn off all phones. You couldn't even have the phone in your pocket. You had to bring it up front and you got a ticket so you could get it back at the end. Only clear water bottles are allowed at your seat. I don't usually get nervous for exams but this whole process gave me some nerves. I think I did well though. Just as this semester starts wrapping up I have started making plans for when I am back at Saint Mike's. I registered for all my classes yesterday and got every one that I wanted. Here is my schedule for next semester: Monday Wednesday Friday 8:30-9:35 Marketing 11:00-12:05 Evolution Tuesday 11:30-1:05 Literary Studies: Aftermath 3:00-4:35 Writing About the Study Abroad Experience 5:00-6:35...

7th biggest tree in NZ Classes ended last week and this past week was set aside for a study break  camping trip before finals. I originally planned on doing a great walk but the other people that I was going with didn't have any hiking gear and backed out at the last minute. It ended up being okay though since we got to go up north and check out Coromandel. We started the trip on Sunday and went up to a forest that has the largest trees in New Zealand. It was amazing how big the trees were. We then continued on to our first campsite which was free. We got to set up the tent in the dark and it was raining but luckily it went up easily. Biggest tree in NZ The next morning we woke up and started to make our way up to Cape Reinga which is the most northern point in New Zealand. Right before we got to the top we stopped at the giant dunes. You can go sledding down them which was a blast. It was quite exhausting hiking back up though since the sand would start slipping down wh...

On Tuesday I went to Rotorua with Megan and Caroline. I went there before for adventure weekend with my program but we didn't get to go white water rafting since the water was too high so I figured it would be good to go back again. We went down on Monday night so that we could start the activities right the next morning. The first thing we did was the white water rafting. We went over the biggest commercial waterfall which is 7m high or about 21 feet tall. It was a little scary going over it but it wasn't bad at all. It was actually a little underwhelming but the whole trip was a lot of fun. We were the only ones who booked for that time so we got to go with three guides. They were all having a blast which made it even more fun for us. Going over the big waterfall. The zorb coming down with all three of us. Next up was Zorbing which I had been wanting to do ever since that Rocket Power New Zealand movie. It was such a fun experience. Overpriced but fun. If you don...

I was so focused on telling everyone as much as possible about my break that I kind of forgot to mention everything else that has been going on. So here are the highlights for the past month or so: The weekend after break I went to Rotorua with my IFSA group. We went mountain biking, lugeing, and sailing. The luge was a blast. It is kind of like an alpine slide except that you are able to steer and instead of a slide it's like a road. This allows you to race against other people which makes things much more exciting. It is the most dangerous tourist activity in New Zealand but luckily no one got hurt too bad. We were supposed to go white water rafting but the river was too high so we went sailing to some hot springs instead. The white water rafting would have been more fun but the sailing was nice too. Also, it didn't hurt that everything was included in our program fee so I didn't have to pay for anything. The weekend of the 21st-23rd I went to the bay of islands with ...