The Wanderlust Has Got Me …

When I signed up for this course in October, I was totally pumped to learn about the small country on the other side of the world that has been the location for lots of my favorite movies; but, on the other hand, my enthusiasm was kept within limits as I knew the Cultural Studies Courses had always been associated with a lot of effort to learn facts and figures by heart.

However, those concerns were quickly swept out of the way as I realized that Geoffrey’s approach to this course was completely different to, for example, the Cultural Studies I course.

I loved the way he structured his lessons: no matter what topic we were dealing with, he never lacked of pictures, youtube clips or news videos to keep us up to date with the current happenings in New Zealand. What I personally found really good was also that Geoffrey always encouraged us to share our personal opinion on a specific issue; I just remembered an interesting discussion we had in class about the Pony Tail Affair and whether John Key should still be Prime Minister (ironically he resigned only a few days later).

Of course, there were a few topics I liked more than others such as our session about Maori Language and Culture as well as The Great Flag debate (that John Oliver video clip was fabulous by the way).

In my very first blog post I wrote that my expectations for this course were to learn more than the little things I already know about New Zealand and simply get a bigger picture. Looking back at this statement now, I can definitely say for myself that this was a great opportunity to learn about the Kiwi Culture and Tradition. I partly was a little disappointed that we couldn’t go into that much detail though, but that’s okay, I mean, I just looked it up on my own. It didn’t need much to convince me that New Zealand is an amazing country (even though this class reinforced it a lot!) and, to say it with the words of Robert W. Service, “The Wanderlust has got me… by the belly-aching fire”.

So, at the end of this semester, I’d like to say you, Geoffrey, a big thank you for offering this course and pouring your energy into it!

I’ve seen a lot of people teach and instruct in my life and can tell without a doubt: you are one passionate teacher who knows how to present knowledge in an interesting manner! I really enjoyed coming to your classes, even though I’m probably the biggest morning grouch on this planet.

I’m sorry to hear you’re leaving as I would have liked to recommend this course to a few friends of mine. However, keep up the good work and your passion when you go back to New Zealand, and don’t forget that change is always an opportunity, you just have to take it an make the best out of it!