Getting there

How do you get to New Zealand? It isn’t hard; go to any number of online travel companies, book a flight for around $1300 and you can be in New Zealand in a few days. You don’t need a visa, yes, you do still need a passport, but they aren’t hard to come by. That is how I did it the first time around. Actually that is how I’ve done it with every trip except the third (I was coming from Iraq) and the most recent trip. Because the most recent trip I intended to stay a while and I intended to study here, the processes was a bit more taxing than on the previous trips.

Getting the visa

I wasn’t sure how long the process was going to take to get everything in line so I started shopping around and getting everything in line around November. Auckland has several universities that are internationally accredited, and it was my intent to go to the University of Auckland. But University of Auckland doesn’t have a journalism program. As I shopped around I learned the only school in Auckland that does have a journalism program is Auckland University of Technology (AUT) and that is how I decided which school I’d be going to, which decided for me what organization I’d be going through to do my study abroad, Australearn.

There are other organizations to go through to study in New Zealand, or the south pacific for that matter, but the only one providing service to AUT is Australearn. This wasn’t an issue; the people I worked with at Australearn were very professional and did an excellent job. They are based out of Denver so I even got to go meet the people who were working so hard for me. I did make their lives more difficult in the random ways I tend to, such as leaving two weeks before the rest of the students studying abroad, arranging my own living space and a pick-up at the airport… Not really a lot more work, I just can’t seem to do things in an orthodox way.

While Australearn was great, I did have some trouble from AUT. Australearn takes care of the student visa; it’s a simple matter of getting them the proper paper work and documentation to them. Not that the proper paper work is easy, it does require a physical to prove I’m not diseased, ill or a potential burden or danger to New Zealand population or health care system to include a chest x-ray to show I don’t have Tuberculoses. While the paper work was a pain, I wasn’t surprised, New Zealand being the isolated island it is, it doesn’t have to deal with a lot of the diseases the rest of the world puts up with, and they want to keep it that way. But I digress, with plenty of paperwork to do and not being sure how long the process would take, I was sure to get everything taken care of several months in advance so I could leave the states by June 15. AUT wasn’t quite as concerned about when I got here so they held on to their end of the paperwork until a few days before I was supposed to leave. Australearn got the paper work late, the embassy got the paperwork late, and I was not going to get to New Zealand on time. Leading to further complicate the matter, some of the paperwork I sent in was the wrong paper work. It was easily remedied, but it could have been easily remedied in April rather than the week after I was to be in New Zealand. But such is life, and if you aren’t prepared for such problems, perhaps it is best if you don’t become a world traveler.

While this wasn’t a huge issue, I did plan on arriving several weeks before class started so wasn’t made to miss any class, it did become slightly problematic with my girlfriend who has had a hard time believing I was really coming down anyway, and understandably, how many people will really move half way around the world to be with someone? Explaining I really was still coming and this wasn’t my stalling until I could find a way out -- In retrospect – is quite funny.

Paying for it

Every other time I’ve been down to New Zealand I’ve had a steady job, one I didn’t always want, but it was a steady job. Thanks to that steady job I did have quite a bit saved up and even better I had the G.I. Bill paying for my schooling… That was until I decided to go on a study abroad… I was told while I was getting out of the army that the study abroad might be problematic, and in true army fashion I was also told it wouldn’t be a problem and I didn’t have to worry about it. Funny enough, at the moment it seems both were right.

The reason I should have been worried is because the army was never going to make it easy for me; the reason I need not worry is the money is mine and using it for a study abroad is a qualified use for it… Perhaps I should still be worried since I have yet to see any of the money since I’ve been abroad, and I could at the moment use it.

Again, since I wasn’t sure how the processes worked or how long it would take, I got an early start, going into the veteran affairs office as early as January when I was told, the money could be used for a study abroad, and to come back when I had all the details. I came back in April when I had been accepted to the program and my paper work was well under way. And now I was told who ever I’d spoken to in January (always get a name) was wrong, and I needed to know if the university I wanted to go to was an approved university. I stated the university was indeed internationally accredited, and I’d already cleared my course of study with the study abroad office and my department, and been assured the credits would transfer; I was told this did not matter, the university had to be approved by the V.A.

The V.A. office told me they would get back to me once they’d found out if the university was approved, and all I could do was wait… While I couldn’t do much, I could go in to the V.A. office once a week to see what progress had been made, I figured sooner or later they’d do what they could to help me so I’d leave them alone. After a few weeks the V.A. came through with good news and bad news. Yes, AUT is accepted, how would I feel about changing my degree to nursing?

I was told while it is an accepted university, my course of study wasn’t accepted and we could likely get it accepted, I just needed to contact some department somewhere in New York and get them to approve my course of study… No guarantee it would be approved, but we could give it a try. When I’d made a few phone calls, as is so often the case with the military I received a very different answer, yes, it could be easily done, but I couldn’t do it, I needed my V.A. office to make the calls, so back into the V.A. office I went, and back to work went my V.A. office in trying to get my program approved.

I can’t fault Metro’s V.A. for not knowing what to do with me, as they pointed out to me regularly, I’m a trail blazer, no other student has used G.I. Bill money to do a study abroad so they were having to learn the whole process as we went. In the end (the week I should have been leaving for New Zealand) we found the right person, got the right paperwork, and all looked good to go. This was after several visits to the V.A. office sometimes twice a week to get everything lined up, but apparently it shouldn’t be an issue, the V.A. will pay for a study abroad, my school is approved, and there now exists in Metro’s V.A. a note allowing for any veteran with G.I. Bill benefits to use those benefits for a study abroad.

More than once this past year Samantha has said to me “maybe the universe is trying to tell us something.” And I have to admit, it has been very trying this getting everything in order to spend a year here. Several times I’ve thought “I’d like for just one thing to fall into place without having to go through a huge hassle.” None the less, my response to her has remained the same, “Yes, the universe is telling us: sometimes you have to work very hard for the things you want.” Now that I’m here, and things have fallen into place, I have to say, all the hassle was worth it.