While other German exchange students flew home, Zoe Blau made the decision to finish her schooling at Garin College.
Zoe arrived in July 2019 for a year, but during lockdown her parents raised the question of whether she would prefer to stay in New Zealand for the next few years.
“Seeing the attitudes of students here and looking at Germany from a distance made me look at things differently. There is stress for students here, but personally for me there is less stress going to school here,” says Zoe.
Having made the decision to stay, Zoe is now very thankful.
“My friends are in their final year and are stressed by coronavirus. They have to go to school and wear masks all the time and my region is second worst for the virus in Germany,” she says.
Zoe thinks the blend of German and Kiwi schooling has been good for her. She says she learned to work hard in Germany and still wants to make her parents proud with good grades.
Despite having to pick up three new subjects in May, when she made the decision to stay in New Zealand, she passed NCEA level two and achieved endorsed with excellence.
“I selected my subjects when I was coming to New Zealand and I just wanted to have fun. I did cooking and outdoor education. But I needed different subjects to be eligible for university in Germany so had to pick up biology, history, and English,” she says.
Zoe was nervous about the transition from just having fun to having to work hard, but said it was easier than she thought.
Out of school, Zoe has loved seeing New Zealand.
She says her friends in Germany said they were envious of life in New Zealand when she posted being in Hagley Park in a crowd of thousands on New Year’s Eve.
The hardest part of being away from home for two and a half years is missing her family.
She also knows that, when she does return to Germany, she may never live at home again, as she will possibly go straight to university.
Garin College currently has 14 international students with Zoe being the only European in the cohort.
