University in New Zealand

To study in New Zealand you need to be prepared to pass the IELTS.  The IELTS is a English test to assess your level of English.  I Have not presented but I have heard different opinions about it, some people say it is easy, others say it is not that easy.  But this is the first step to take.  The university runs from March to November, two semesters (A & B) and a summer school in December and June (The universities do not cover all the papers offered during the year, only the most followed by students).  The cost of university for an International student is quite expensive.  The fee for one year is about 4,000 $, but I consider the level of the university here in New Zealand very high.  From where I come from universities’ papers require an exam at the end of the semester, here instead, there are essays to prepare during the course, mid-course test and tutorial (with homework to do!) every week.  It can appear annoying but once you get used to I believe you can realise how this is good to learn and can prepare you way better for what you will be doing at work after university.

The lecturers, tutors, professors are very friendly and I did not meet the grumpy and arrogant one (in Italy there is this arrogant way to be of an Academic that really puts everyone off) yet.  Everyone is there to help, to give you the chance to learn and understand what you are doing.  It may be because you pay so much and they are offering a service, and if you are not satisfied you may change and go to another competitor of the tertiary education market (it is a really capitalistic way to see the education but it works well).  This does not mean you are gifted your degree or qualification, instead it means you are offered all the possible chances to learn, and that is good.

There are so many international students, many from asia, but I could see lots of Europeans and Americans.  That is important because you can exchange your opinions and ideas with people with a very different background than yours, it helps to open wider your eyes I believe.  Even the Academic stuff comes from everywhere, for example Malaysia, China, Australia, Switzerland, England and Italy.

I think this people are attracted here for the good environment, the good services universities offer and the relatively easy way to get a visa and work here.

The university of Waikato is well known in the south hemisphere and north too.  It runs some good degrees. There are other universities in Nz, Victoria University, Massey University, Otago University, Auckland University, Cambridge University Canterbury university (thanks Aimee) ( these are the most known) and others.

I know other foreigners in the other universities and they are all happy with their universities.

Waikato University

This is the website of the University.  I hope you may find it of interest for you.  If you want to study in another country, this may be your home.

Tomaso.

keeping it updated

Hi everybody,

I swear I wil try to keep the blog updated at least weekly.

I have lots of things to say. I am pretty sure I will forget some of them.

First of all, I have been granted residency, that means pretty much that I have got the same rights (and obbligations of course) of the Kiwis: I can vote, I have complete medical coverage, I can enroll at the university paying fees as domestic student (an international student pays about 16.000 NZ dollars, a domestic student only 4.000 NZ dollars), I can travel overseas and coming back as many as I want to, I can live in Australia without any particular visa (yes, just with my residence visa I am allowed to).  These are only the main points of being resident.

Thanks of my residence visa I could enroll at the university, so this semester I am doing 3 papers, Intermediate accounting, Accounting information system and Business ethic…and treaty of waitangi.

I have to tell you, I never thought it could be so hard! I pretty much need to go to classes, tutorials and workshop every day. Plus I have to read and study about 200/300 pages weekly (in italy I was not used to all that amount of work to do). However I am enjoying it, the enviroment is really good and I can feel good vibrations of studying at the Waikato university, it’s thriving! There are lots of international students from all over the world, even a few italians (but not surprisingly they are quite snobby).

I am also looking for a part-time job, but it is not easy (actually I am looking for an accounting job so I can gain nz accounting experience).

I also bought a ticket of the AC/DC’s concert in Auckland, next February 2010! I am stoked, it is going to be the best concert of the year (I never thought I could have seen them on the stage!).

this is it, at least the most important things to say.  Two weeks ago two of my closest friends got married and I missed the cerimony, I wish I could be there (sorry guys). Best wishes for you!

See you all next week.

Tommy.

I better start using this blog again

After few months without using this blog I think it arrived the right moment to start using it again.

Well, news?

I resigned by my last ( and first ) job in New Zealand after 11 months working there.  I’ve never really loved that place and that office and it was starting to be too annoying to go working just for the money..lucky I had some good reasons to complain and I left with good references, good reputation and good money..in New Zealand it doesn’t exist the “liquidazione” so when you leave a job you don’t get anything that just your last payroll ( unless you’ve good a good reason to leave..and a good lawyer ).  Now I am looking for a job, but the right one this time.

I am nearing to finalize my residence aplication, unfortunatly I didn’t count with my second citizenship, so Immigration NZ requires me to provide a Cleareance Police Certificate from Colombia, so I have to wait another 2 months ( more or less ) to get this done. Hopefully before July I will be resident. ( I can’t wait for it )

I applied for assessing my Economic degree, the New Zealand qualification authority as all the documents that are required to evaluate the degree, once it is done I can apply at the NZICA a.k.a. New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants to assess te degree and they should be able to tell what and how many papers I have to study to become quialified CA in Kiwi land.

I think I might join a gym for three months, to keep me busy and to work out, I lost some muscles tone and it annoys me a bit.

Summer is ended and autumn is coming soon, leaves fall from trees and it’s getting Cold.  Las week I was in Dunedin, in the South Island, it’s a really quite and the oldest city of New Zealand, 160 years old!  I went ther for Aimee’s studies and I appreciated the cold weather ( it riminded the italian weather ), it would be cool to live there, the mountains to go sking are just about 2 hours by car from the city and the winter is pretty long so lots of opportunities to ski.

I talked a lot for the first post since the last year.  I will leave with a saying thatmakes me laugh, a kiwi saying:

Cool Bananas to everybody,

Tommy

TAX CUT

The Crown ( Government ) will cut the tax rates from the 1st of October, here a link with the new rates!

It will be a 70 dollars more every month on my income!! I won’t be rich but it’s a good news, overall if I think about Italy, since I remember I could not see a tax cut just because of the inflaction.  In Italy when there is a tax cut, the GOVT brings the money in other ways, as new prices for medical exams.

VISA!!!

I am finally a happy visa owner !! it’s a 12 months visa but I’ve already applied for the residence and in 4 months the Immigration will look at that and hopefully before the end of the year I will be resident, WOW!

Now I wait for my passport to have back from the immigration with the stamp of the visa.

Now we have to celebrate.

Tomaso.

Kiwi Hackering

 

As you can see if you open the link, this guy committed  hackering when he was just 16 and now he will go overseas to work for for a big company. These things can really happen!

tomaso

Immigration: The ODC

After the application, after the second letter with all the information about us, the immigration is still giving us an hard time.

They are making me feel like if I was not a human being, I am here because of Aimee and our relationship is genuine but they are so death, now we will see if we can talk to them for an appointment.

Anyway: yesterday afternoon we talked with the Jp, the official for our wedding, she will marry us. we talked about the money, about how it will be and what we do during the wedding. I asked if my witness “Giovanni” can wear a priest costume and sing for us and she told us that it’s ok so he will do that that day, I know he wants to do it, will be funny!

We went to play bowling yesterday night, the italian couple that we know left the job at the Skycity yesterday night so we went to play “AGGRATIS” ( for free ), hehe.

tommy.

The Coldest day of the winter

Today is the coldest day of the winter, but I am not sure about it anyway.

This week is very cold and even if today is not the coldest is fu**ing cold!!

A couple of weeks ago we went to Wellington, maybe because of the weather but I did not like that much, it was ever interesting to know the Capital of the NZ. I think it could be better in summer time, that’s why I want to go the next summer, I could judge better the city.

Finally we knew Clod and his girlfriend, we went out for a pizza and then for some beers, nice! We met also Ziglio and his family, the administrator of “Italiansonline”.

The flight back to Hamilton was cancelled because of the wind but fortunatly we could fly to Auckland and the Aimee’s parents picked us up ( Auckland is just 1 hour and a half from Hamilton )

We are organising the flights to my parents from Italy, now the price is 1405 with Singapore Airlines, a bit expensive but I think it’s still reasonable considering How long is the flight from Italy to here. My friend Paolo cannot come because of it, but who can complain about it? he’s got a family to look after. Hopefully my other friends Fabio and Gio ( vanna ) may come, we will see what happen later this year.

I am looking forward to see my parents here and how they could be surprised to see this country, I think they will really like here, it would be the same for my friends if they come.

All the other people that I invited to come to our wedding said no, because of the price obviously, but I think there is another reason why they don’t want to come, because all those people are not used to travel and take planes for so many hours.

Anyway I am happy because of my parents ( they come ) and my closest friends are trying to see if the can.

The next week there is the Timabaland concert in Auckland, I don’t know if we go or not, but Aimee wants to go and I’d like to do it to make her happy.

On friday the Iphone will be realesed in NZ, what a shame, the prices are so expensive, I am upset about it, I wanted it but the price is crazy, I read a lot of comments of people telling that they won’t buy the Iphone because of it.

Today on grabaseat there a flight to Tokyo or Osaka for 699 NZ Dollars ( about 350 Euro ), someone’s envying?

 

Tommy.

Friday Luch

Friday lunch: Hungi!

Te Wananga organised a Maori’s Luch, 8 $ for a luch. I did not know what was the luch, I went to pick it up and it was hungi, I a not sure about the spelling but It’s something really Maori, the food is cooked for hours in the ground, nothing really new because in many places in the world the food is cooked in the gournd, but it was funny a workmate of mine:

“where was it cooked?”

“…somewhere in the ground in New Zealand!” =/

hehe..british sense of humour..

Tommy.

Wellington

YAY, we are going to Wellington this weekend, we have a plane at 7.20 in the morning. We’re lucky we found a room in the Ibis Hotel ( 4* ), just 100 dollar for three persons and the place it’s cose the centre city.

We will go to the Te Papa Museum and we will catch up with clod and his girlfriend, I think we will go out for a belgique beer in this place in Wellington, I can’t remember the name ot the place.

The last week we brought the tickets for Australia VS New Zealand the 2nd of August, I can’t wait to go!!

The job is going well, this week I’ve talked with my manager about my job and she gave to me a list of things that I have to do, a long list but atleast I will be busy doing things that I like, the first couple of weeks were very annoyed because she was not in Nz and she could not train me.

I need to start to study for the Ielts exam, I want to do it in september, I need of it to enroll at the Uni, I don;t know which kind of course, if a Master or a Postgrade, But the next Year ( after become resident ) I want to enroll in the Waikato University or The Massey University as an extramural student so I can work and study at the weekend, it will be hard but it’s not the first time and I want to do it because after that I will be very skilled and I think I might find a very good job and earn more than now.

We’re looking the prices of the tickets with my parents for the next februarym 1400 euros with Singapor Airlines the cheapest that we found, but we have to hear from my mum what she could find at the agency in italy. It’s agreat country, but to come here it’s a lot of money, unfortunatly!

I think it will be here just my closest friends, other people can not effort that money just for my wedding, but who care, I think it’s a good occasion to know a good country and honestly I want just them here with me, I have ever wanted just the closer people to my wedding and will be like that!

Tommy