"Adventure is out there!"

Written by Amanda White

I believe that it was Bilbo Baggins who said, “I’m going on an adventure!” (<-- with far more exclamation points than that, though.) I am thrilled to echo that sentiment as I turn my thoughts and energy toward my National Expedition and Internship Program (henceforth referred to NEIP) in New Zealand this summer--where I will hopefully skip along some of the paths that he trod.

Greetings, friends! My name is Amanda White. I hail from Cincinnati, Ohio, where I’ve spent almost all of my twenty years reading good books and frolicking outdoors; riding bikes with my parents and brother; laughing loudly and thinking deeply; making new friends; and, for the past three years, studying Communication and Linguistics at Miami University of Ohio (I used to wish it were in Florida, but now I’m rather fond of Oxford, Ohio… which is also not the one in England). This last collegiate part of my life makes me thrilled to embark on this journey through Massey University on the Communication and Marketing track of the NEIP.

I’ll be filling this blog with pictures, anecdotes, and reflections about the expedition part of our trip, as well as internship adventures. These posts will be distinctly punctuated by my writerly voice, which is often pun-filled and just a tad sarcastic; I hope to make you smile at least once per post. Despite my fingers being the ones typing, though, I’ll try to faithfully represent the experience of our team as a whole, so that the record shows the wonderful time that we have as the family I am sure we travelers will become.

By my count, I have NINE days (single digits!) until my flight and I absolutely can’t wait. Most of that time will be spent puzzling over packing, Googling pictures of New Zealand places, and making my coffee shop bucket list for the trip… till next time!