Like last week, this week was fairly uneventful. In terms of internship work, I finished up all the FATCA work available to work on. I’ve also been going back and forth with a laptop supplier from HP discussing details about a new lease of about 400 laptops. I reviewed the terms that they were able to offer and read through the whole contract to double check everything and organize the details of all the costs that contribute to the total. I also attended a demo meeting for a software upgrade that the trust will be implementing across all their systems shortly after I leave.
This week I finally made my way to the Auckland Zoo. They had a lot of cool animals, but my favorites were the tigers and elephants. I also grabbed some really good chicken and rice from a tent on my way home from work one day this week. It was some sort of Māori community event set up in a small courtyard with music, dancers, and other food tents. It’s been interesting seeing the cultural differences between a country like Australia where the native population and the rest of the citizens have tension and argue with each other, and a country like New Zealand where there are no tensions and aspects of native culture are blended with the other cultures that were brought to this country.
This is my last blog of this semester abroad. I can’t believe it is already coming to an end. These last few months have been the best months of my life. I don’t think the places we went could have gotten any better. Both Australia and New Zealand have something for everyone to enjoy. The excursions we went on were great and made sure that there was always something to do that I didn’t have to plan at all. The internship opportunity was outstanding. It has been extremely insightful and experiential to get to work globally. Most importantly, the relationships built during this trip have grown so much since first arriving in Sydney. I felt that I got to know every student on the trip much better than I ever did and ever would have if I didn’t decide to study abroad. I am very sad to leave here and go back to America, but still looking forward do a fun summer break and senior year.
