Franceso Baiguini from Italy

It seems like yesterday that I was at the airport saying goodbye to my family and jumping on a plane which would have brought me up to the other side of the world, it was bringing me to the unknown.

Before leaving I used to believe that the purposes of my exchange were improving English speaking skills, widening my acquaintance with this worldwide used language, but as soon as I set foot in the plane I understood that what my future where preparing for me would have been more, far more than this. Never could I have imagined such a breathtaking adventure.

Macleans College has played a main role in this. It is here where I found the opportunity to build friendships that will be with me for all the rest of my life, it is here where I had the chance to get closer to the kiwi culture and a first taste of the Māori
lifestyle, it is the place where I could improve my knowledges, my abilities and widening those. The environment I’ve found here is an academic and custom-made one for students who are not just seeking shallow knowledges, but it gives to them the opportunity to develop their own personality and to grow as adults ready to confront the big world outside.

The teachers I’ve had during this period left me truly satisfied and they will remain in my mind not just like professors, but I will look at them as model to follow. I would like to say thank you to them all for everything.

It was very interesting studying subjects in English and with a different and new style and what let me fully satisfied it is the opportunity to join only classic classes, but even interesting and exciting subjects as engineering and carpentry where I could improve and learn practical skills that I’m sure I’ll bring with me forever.

Something that I really loved about my time in NZ is the chance to travel that I’ve got. Indeed, I’ve explored as much as possible of this remote island, for me on the other side of the world and so the gorgeous nature and the extraordinary and unspoiled locations you can find here have left an unforgettable mark into my mind.

I will never forget the astonishing dawn admired from Abel Tasman, or the unbelievable experience of that swim into that hot-water river just out of Rotorua, or more the emotion of the ritual Haka listened before the match against the Wallabies in that stadium, and again that starry sky joined in south island which I still struggle to find the words to describe, and what about the feeling to being in the place where in the 1840 the treaty between the Māori and the English was signed? Believe me when I say that these are just the peak of the iceberg of all the adventures experienced and live during these 5 months; 5 months throughout my life’ve changed, during which I’ve changed. Now I can say I’m more aware of the world even if I still have places to explore and people to meet, now I can recognise me not only as an Italian citizen, now I can see me as a citizen of the world and feel it.

New Zealand, friends, brothers, every one I’ve ever run into and crossed and shared my way with during this time, Macleans College, Kupe House, thank you, thanks from the bottom of my heart for being part of this amazing journey and for making it a “once in a lifetime experience”. Forever, wherever my life will bring me, I will always bring with me all of you.