Written by: Cecile, a student at Languages International
I have been in New Zealand for almost 2 weeks now. I live with a homestay family, about 40 minutes away by bus from Auckland city centre. They are nice and have a strange kiwi accent, which was difficult for me to understand at the beginning because I was not used to it. My homestay mother helps me to improve my English by talking to me about a lot of things, especially pets, which is a subject she could speak about for hours. I also improve my English by watching TV with the family, especially a lot about rugby because my homestay father watches All Blacks games. He shouts at the players through the TV. He encourages them when they play well or insults them when they drop the ball.
Auckland is quite a big city because it has several suburbs. In the CBD, which is the centre of Auckland, they have a lot of shops and pedestrians are allowed to cross a few streets diagonally. If there is somewhere where foreign students have to go, it is: Mrs Higgins Cookies shops where they sell the best cookies in the world. Kiwis ( that’s how New Zealand’s people proudly call themselves) are friendly, and Kiwi men are courteous because they let me get on the bus before them (and sometimes that means not standing for 40 min).
