Classes: Week One

So I've officially been here just over a week, though it feels like I've always lived here! Classes started Monday and I came into Monday taking "Livestock Production Science", "Farm Management", "Global Food Systems", and "Plant Pest Management". Well I'm keeping all of those with the exception of "Plant Pest Management" which I traded for "Principles of Wine Science".

Livestock Production Science is super interesting, it's all about genetics and breeding and improving livestock production. My teachers are also really cool, so that helps too. We have 4 field trips with this class and one field tour. Field trips are day trips to surrounding farms, and the field tour is a 4 day tour around Wellington where we stay with host families and visit various farming operations. I think this will be one of my favorite classes :)

Farm Management is probably going to be my hardest class because it really focuses on crop oriented farms as opposed to livestock farms/ranches which is what I'm more familiar with. So all this talk on fertilizer and stuff and I'm so lost! But this class won't have a lab, so it's all lecture based. Most NZ kids who take my livestock class also take this class, so all the field trips are the same for both.

Global Food Systems is hands down the easiest class because it's supposed to be for first year students. It's interesting, but a lot of common sense kind of stuff. We have one field trip, and I think it's going to be to a red onion farm. Our teacher is from China, moved to New Zealand and married a Kiwi, and she calls her kids her Chiwis. She's the cutest!

My Principles of Wine Science is super interesting and all new to me. Since I'm not legal back in the states, I obviously don't know much about wine. Well in this class we spend our two hour labs wine tasting, and get to actually make our own wine! Hopefully I can somehow swing my homemade wine past customs ;) Well this class has one field trip to a local vineyard, so that should be pretty cool.

Overall it'll be a challenging semester, but New Zealand learning is much different from American schools. For example, we have absolutely no homework, and only have four courses, but the majority of our grade is riding on our final exam. I only have one class on Wednesdays and Fridays, but the other three days I have class back to back from 10am to 5pm. So that's definitely a bit different. The no homework thing is definitely a plus though! Hopefully I'll still be able to pass my final exam ;)

Well this weekend we're spending Saturday in Akaroa, and Sunday my pod is having a wine and cheese night, so it should be a great weekend. I absolutely love everyone and everything here! I promise I'll get pictures up soon, I'm bringing my GoPro to Akaroa (a coastal town).