Week 10: Shipped up to Auckland

Bryce Bozadjian
Sep 11, 2017
3 min read

Hi friends and fam, thanks for checking in for week 10! It's crazy I only have a month of classes left before finals!

Missing everyone back home in the States extra on the 16th anniversary of 9/11.

Exciting news: My Sun Devil friend Chenay and I booked our flights to Melbourne, Australia! We're jetting off October 18. Still figuring out if we want to rent a campervan or hostel. She'll then be coming back to Auckland before flying home about a week later. I'm planning on exploring Aussie for a month, coming back when Becky, Rachel, and Emily fly in on November 19! Sadly, this means I won't be making it to Fiji :(

Speaking of Rachel, I finally FaceTimed her after several weeks of not talking, mostly because she was in the middle of nowhere Oregon for a music festival for a while. It was good to catch up with my big sis!

I'm officially DONE with philosophy essays!!! Just have the final in a month!

Wednesday I (gladly) skipped my philosophy lecture and tutorial to join MCSA – Management Communication Students Association – on their annual industry trip up to Auckland. It was so nice to hang out with people my own age (or older) who have similar passions!

Fun Fact: PRINZ is the NZ equivalent of PRSA, for all my PR friends back home.

We took a van and a couple cars up to Porter Novelli, which is an international consultancy. Unfortunately, we had some GPS issues so my group was about 40 minutes late to their presentation (lateness would become a common theme over the course of the day). The part I did hear was interesting! We then headed to the Auckland Museum and heard from a lady who had a really varied list of industries she worked in, including working for a candle company.

After that we all devoured some – yep, you guessed it – $5 Dominoes pizza and got to know each other more. We then headed to our third and final stop, Sky TV, where we heard from a sports PR professional and got a tour of the studio. Fittingly, they had a massive Red Sox mural painted on the outside of one of their buildings!

Throughout the day I had been asked to help take pictures and videos for a promotional MCSA video, which I am currently working on. On the ride home we stopped in Pokeno for some food and ice cream and it was yummy!

I'm realizing how much I relied on a hectic schedule to keep me going, probably since middle school. In reality, I have always overcommitted to too many classes/extracurriculars so I'm letting myself sleep a lot and forcing myself to relax with my easy schedule. I'm so programmed to be stressed out that my mind doesn't know what to do with all the free time!

The following day I had to endure some broadcast journalism PTSD as my media relations class tutorial went to a TV studio for mock interviews. It was good fun even though I despise being on camera!

My friend Isaac let me drive his car! I know what you're thinking, bad idea, but I didn't kill anyone. The hardest parts were shifting with the gear on the left side, the turn signal indicator is on the right side (so I kept turning on the windshield wiper instead), and being so close to the middle of the road as the driver. I almost went into a rotary the wrong way, which was scary! Blake wore three seat belts in the backseat LOL. I practiced a couple more times while Isaac was gone over the weekend so I had access to his car (a Subaru Forester – Subaru is pronounced SuBARu here, it's funny). Hoping that after a bit of practice I'll be able to drive to the glowworm caves (I know, I still haven't gone!!!)