Return to Student ProfilesChristian Canstein
One year in New Zealand, a life changing experience. I am Christian Canstein, an 18 year old student from Germany. Since July 2006 I have been a student at Christchurch Boys’ High School.
It was a good friend of mine who first told me that students can go overseas for a year and study at a different High School, learn a new language, make new experiences and get to know many great people from the other side of the world.
When I arrived in Christchurch about 10 months ago I was a complete stranger in a country 19000 km away from where I used to live. It took me a little while to get used to the new environment and language but thanks to a fantastic host family and many great friendly people I enjoyed it to be here from the first day on. People were very friendly to me, open minded and it didn’t take me very long to make new friends.
It was a good experience for me to go to a school with only boys, more than 125 years of tradition and a school uniform with a tie and a blazer. The opportunity to study English in a class full of native speakers, to take subjects like food technology or outdoor pursuits and go rock climbing on the beautiful Port Hills or white water kayaking in Murchison were totally new for me and I absolutely loved it.
One of the biggest highlights during my year was a ten day sail on the Spirit of New Zealand. Together with 40 other students from all over the country, and ten crew members we got to sail from Auckland, through the Hauraki Gulf up to Great Barrier Island and back to Auckland. I didn’t only get to know 40 great new students, many of who I am still in contact with, I learned how to set the sails as well as navigating and steering a 42 metre long boat in the open sea. I will never forget how much fun it is to work in a team with other students or to climb up the 30 metre high mast while we were sailing under the Auckland Harbour Bridge with the wind blowing in our face and the sun setting in front of us.
The other thing that made my year in New Zealand unique is that I got the chance to travel a lot around the country and to see the most beautiful places, such as the Abel Tasman National Park, Queenstown, Cape Reinga or Great Mercury Island. But I think there are just too many wonderful places here in New Zealand to list them all.
Now I’ve got about 5 weeks left until I go back home to Germany to finish High School. Reviewing, I can say that it was a great and very interesting experience in many different ways. The fact that I had to integrate into a new family, that I had to handle a new language and that I got to know a new culture and way of life made me grow up a lot. I’m sure I can say about myself that I see things from a different point of view now, I’m way more open minded and more considerate.
Overall, I have definitely had the best year of my life, I’m not really looking forward to going home and I strongly recommend to every student out there to have an overseas experience.
It is absolutely fantastic, but not always easy.