Study abroad applications were due yesterday for the fall 2010 semester, and everybody I know from my program (and my roommate as well) planned to submit one. My choices were to either remain at CBS, further embedding myself in Danish culture, mastering the language, and boosting my GPA through hard work and dedication OR abdicate both the country and all scholarly responsibilities in the name of excitement, frivolity, and a pass/fail grading system.
New Zealand, I'm on my way.
There's something slightly amusing about being an American studying abroad from your overseas home university. There's something even more amusing about going back to UNC as a graduate exchange student, which I attempted. But, in a sizzlingly ironic twist, I didn't have the undergraduate grades to qualify.
I selected the University of Otago, on New Zealand's south island, as my preferred destination. Why this particular institution? Allow me to bestow a few nuggets upon you:
"Couch burning is a frequent, illegal problem with partying students in the student neighbourhood surrounding the campus. In 2007, a pub owner was charged with sedition over a pamphlet offering students the prize of a fuel-soaked couch."
"Large scale clashes between Otago and Canterbury University students and police took place in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 related to events surrounding the Undie 500 car rally organised by students from Canterbury University. Other student social events during the year such as the Toga Parade and the Hyde Street Keg Race are also notable for attracting Police attention, but not to the scale of the Undie conflicts."
Otago is also the country's top-ranked research university and the 2nd best overall. But still, as you can tell from the quotes, the university sounds like a perennial riot. I just wish the campus were more aesthetically pleasing.
The university is in a vibrant college town, Dunedin, of 123,000 people. The cricket grounds are manicured, the music scene is flourishing, and the beaches contain as many penguins as people. The problem is how to get there. Kayak.com currently lists one-way fares at around $1800 (9000 DKK) from Copenhagen to Dunedin, and the shortest flight duration I can find takes 35 hours and over 12,000 miles (19000 km) to reach its destination. Copenhagen has a street called Istedgade I could probably patrol to make some money, but I think my parents, the University of North Carolina, and I would all be ashamed that my business degree led to the purchase of a leopard-print skirt and some clear high heels.
And here's the final crux in this grandiose globetrotting concoction: When I leave the US on January 18th, I might not be back for 18 months. Due to the reversal of seasons in the southern hemisphere, I'll go straight from spring semester at CBS (ends in June) to spring semester at Otago (starts in July) and attempt to get a "summer" internship in Australia from Nov-Feb before writing my thesis. Still, it's hard to say no to New Zealand...especially when it looks like this:
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