It's been a while

First of all, apologies this has taken so long to write. I have a list of excuses, but they are not that interesting. Obviously home has been at the forefront of my mind lately with all the horrors which have hit my beautiful city but I'm pleased to hear everyone is safe and well, and I hope things will start to get back on track again soon.


Life as an exchange student is certainly busy, and of course this is part of the reason I haven't written more often. I'm actually leaving campus tomorrow to travel to Chicago and then Cancun, Mexico for a few days for my Spring Break. Hopefully it should be a fun trip and I'm travelling with a girl I met at school. After a cold winter I'm excited about the prospect of some real sunshine!

Since I last wrote, we have experienced a blizzard with school closed, some rainy days, but now thankfully the sun is starting to shine. It's still pretty cold, but at least it gets above zero celsius on a semi regular basis. Though it was snowing yesterday morning.

One of my highlights of the semester so far was going to a basketball game a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera, but I've hijacked this picture from the uni newspaper so hopefully you can get an idea of what it's like.

JaJuan Johnson - one of the stars of the team.

The stadium at Purdue seats about 15,000 so it's a lot bigger than anything in NZ and as it was the last home game of the season it was a big deal. We were lucky to be sitting in the student section so there was lots of chanting and clapping - so much fun.



I also attended the Blue Man Group, which is this really famous musical act thing which has performed in Vegas and London and all over. So I had high hopes they would be a lot of fun. Unfortunately, their humour was lost on the exchange students although visually it was pretty spectacular at times.

I'm trying to remember what else has happened since I last wrote... It's been so long, and as life here has quickly become normal I'm not sure what else to add. I have been lucky to find a great group of exchange students who I spend most of my time with, and we tend to eat out and go drinking pretty regularly. One of the favourite haunts is Cactus, which is a mad Thursday night experience.

Anna, Mikaela and Christina on the dancefloor at Cactus.

Christina (who is travelling with me to Mexico) and I at dinner.

Jonna, Christina, Mikaela and Monica eating at one of the dining courts here - so much food!

It was Mardi Gras week in New Orleans, so apparently the rest of the country also embraces another reason for drinking. Thus, the masks and beads.

I will make sure the next update doesn't take quite so long. And it will hopefully be a lot more interesting with loads of pictures from Mexico and Chicago (the goal is to remember to actually get my camera out of my bag - this can be a struggle for me at times!).

I hope everyone stays happy and healthy wherever in the world you are.