What I'm going to miss

I leave Penn State in less than three weeks. 

Things I’m going to miss ( apart from friends)

•     Starbucks – iced caramel coffees, iced cinnamon macchiato’s.  I hated Starbucks when I arrived and now I love it.

•    Cafes, shops and restaurants being open all the time -none of this New Zealand 5pm closing time.

•      Not having to put any effort into what you look like to go to class.

•       Being busy and sociable all the time. 

•       Having an accent

•       Bagels every morning for breakfast

• ·     Living and spending all my time on campus

•     School spirit and being proud to go to Penn State.

•      Good news outlets.

• ·      Genuinely enjoying all my classes and being with people who are equally passionate about the same subjects. 

•    Amazon Prime and free two day delivery.

•     Freedom to travel whenever I want. 

•     College bars - so much more fun than the university bars at home
• 
  

    Things I’m looking forward to going home ( apart from friends and family)

•      COFFEE – despite my new-found love for Starbucks New Zealand coffee is still the best – Vicbooks, Adoro, Midnight Expresso, NEO.

•     Breakfast every Saturday at Adoro in Napier with my Mum and Dad. 

•      The beach and living by the sea. 

•     My dog

• ·      Driving

•      Weather that isn’t spontaneous or that doesn’t exist only in the extremes.  (It snowed last Friday and a week later I got sunburnt). 

•     Napier
•      Cheap cellphone rates.

•     Going to the doctors and dentist and not worrying about how much it's going to cost on insurance. 

                                                            

Real Pennsylvania

New Zealanders are all kind of one in the same. That is the people who’ve grown up in Hawkes Bay or rural Southland haven’t grown up that much differently from someone who grew up in inner city Auckland or the suburbs of Wellington.  Sure I never got stuck in a traffic jam growing up and didn’t have many clothes stores to choose from but city and rural experiences are not too dissimilar. 

The thing about America though is that regions, cities and states differ a lot.  Where you come from plays a huge role in how you speak, the music you listen to, who you vote and what kind of car you drive. The more I get to stay with friends around Pennsylvania the more I get to appreciate how different this country is !

This weekend I got a taste of true Pennsylvania – visiting the Amish and the Mason-Dixon line !

On Saturday morning my roommate Brittney and I spontaneously decided to drive to Lancaster for the day to see the Amish.  The Amish are a religious subculture that live mainly Southern Pennsylvania who reject modern day culture and technology. They continue to live as though it were the 1870’s –wearing old fashioned clothes, driving horse and carts and farming without technology and modern day techniques.  As well as this they speak Pennsylvania Dutch and refer to Americans as “ The English”. 

It took us about three hours to drive from State College to Intercourse, just outside Lancaster. We visited some Amish markets which were full of traditional home cooked food – I tried my first whoopee pie (so good) and bought caramel chocolate pecan fudge. As well as food the Amish sold a lot of home made candles, leather goods and hand lotions made from goat milk. 

As we wandered up and down the main street in Intercourse Amish drove past in their horse and buggy’s or push bikes. The women all wore long skirts and the men had beards and wore shirts and long pants.  Britt also told me about the Amish Rumspringa – a kind of ‘rite of passage’ given to Amish boys when they’re about 18. During this time, they’re supposed to experience the outside world and travel. However, Britt told me that most of them spend the entirety of their Rumspringa drinking and partying which I’m pretty sure is not the idea the church had in mind …

Amish horse and carriage 

We then had lunch at crepe café in Lancaster and decided to drive to Britts house about an hour away on the Mason-Dixon state line ( the border between Pennsylvania and Maryland).

Britt lives in New Freedom and calls this area, right on the Maryland border “ the real Pennsylvania”. Surrounded by farmland and red barns almost everybody drove pick-up trucks and blasted country music from their windows.  There were even a few Trump flags and Confederate flags and symbols decorating houses and cars. It kind of felt like being in every small American town in the movies and just about every country music song ever. 

New Freedom, PA

We ended up staying the night in New Freedom and went out to a diner place for dinner with Britt's Mum and some friends.  It was just like being in Napier – Britt had gone to school with a couple of the waitresses and knew so many of the people who came into eat.  

On Sunday morning, we woke up early and went fishing.  Yes, fishing.  You would never catch me going fishing at home, but I figured this was my time to try something new and live the “real Pennsylvania” life.  We drove out to this tiny stream, in which I’m pretty sure no fish were actually living and cast our lines. When I say ‘cast our lines’ I refer to everyone else, I was pretty terrible and most of the time my casts ended up in the grass.  Britt’s Dad was hilarious walking around in his fishing gear pretending he knew what he was doing, whilst Britt sat in a tree with her pink fishing rod and aviators in hand. 

By lunchtime and with no success, we all gave up and Britt and I got back in the car for the three hour drive back to State College.  Pretty sufficed with my “real Pennsylvania” experience I headed back to State College with the knowledge that rednecks are real and that I suck at fishing. 

Exploring farm country in PA

Fishing !

UNICEF USA Student Summit

I have certainly had my fair share of traveling this year.  I've been to so lucky to see so many different cities, town and even countries during my year abroad, so much to the extent that I feel as my friends and family at home can't keep up with my whereabouts !

One of the cities I've really wanted to go back to was Washington D.C. and the past weekend provided the perfect opportunity to follow my passion for global affairs and politics and travel because it was the UNICEF annual student summit.  I've been a member of the club this year and so jumped at the opportunity to attend the annual summit along with hundreds of other high school and college students from all around the USA.

Like any trip that begins in State College (a.k.a. the middle of absolutely no where) it began early with a 5.15am wake up call.  Groggily I gathered my bags and sauntered over to the hub where all the members of PSU UNICEF going gathered to wait for our bus at 6am.  Here's a wonderful photo of us, clearly excited for the day ahead ...

UNICEF USA pulled out no stops when it came to holding their annual summit. The weekend long event took place at the Omni Shoreditch Hotel about 20 minutes from the centre of D.C and this hotel was incredible. From the chandelier filled lobby, the cherry blossom garden or the photos of Ethiopian Kings and royal family members staying it was a first class place to be.  UNICEF even provided discounted hotel rates for the weekend and free food, meaning as college students we got to stay five star.  My only concern about this is does UNICEF really need to host events in a five star hotel, it's definitely not necessary !

Anyway, once we arrived we filled up our UNICEF bag with free merchandise before heading into the first session of the day - speeches from Paul Telfyan and Martin Rendon.  . Phil is the executive director of Equal Justice Under Law, an organization dedicated to ending to inequality in the justice system. I was really inspired by his decision to donate the majority of his income to charity every year and his decision to give up corporate to law to legal battles for those who can't afford lawyers in their own cases.

 Martin on the other hand is the vice president of Public Policy and Advocacy at UNICEF. He spoke about the power of the student voice and our ability to influence legislators to vote for foreign spending.  Following this there was a number of workshops where we discussed issues and how UNICEF clubs can address them, such as the Syrian Refugee Crisis, human trafficking and immunizations.

After another classic 'Southern' dinner  we heard  Cynthia McAfferty, the director of innovation at UNICEF and Lyn Stratford, vice president of program and community speak. Both these speeches we great, in particular I was blown away by the type of technology out there for improving health services in the developing world. UNICEF for example has even developed drones that can quickly transport HIV tests to hospitals from rural areas so people can begin to be treated quickly and properly.


After these speakers we then went into Washington D.C itself and wandered round the national monuments. Unlike last time we were able to get right up close to the White House ( last time we were held back by security guards on the other side of the road). We also went to Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and the National War Memorial and we managed to take hundreds of photos doing so !

Trumps house

After not very much sleep in our luxury hotel rooms on Saturday night we headed into out second day of workshops and keynote speakers. I went to a presentation about identity and understanding how you can use the advantages and disadvantages of your identity ( e.g. female, minority) for better within UNICEF. We also discussed how UNICEF needs to change part of its identity - there needs to be more people of color and other minority groups at the executive level.

Finally after waiting all day in anticipation we heard Caryl Stern, the CEO of UNICEF USA speak which was incredible ! Whilst she spoke about the mission of UNICEF and students role within the organization she was inspiring in herself - her mission, her work ethic and the way she has continued to combine family and work priorities.  We got the opportunity to quickly chat with her afterwards which really made me appreciate how much she manages to combine work, family and also having fun at the same time.

PSU UNICEF club

It was another great weekend in which we finally had some good weather ! As our bus left D.C I certainly felt so much more inspired and refreshed than I did driving in less than 48 hours earlier.  I hope that I can put into practice what I learned at the student summit and bring some of these resources back home with and get much more involved with UNICEF in New Zealand !