Christ's College Exchange 2013 - Caleb Carpenter

For the summer of 2013, I was fortunate enough to get to experience a trip to Christ's College in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. Christ's College was much like MBA in that it was an all boy's school, but it also allowed for boys to live at the college.

The Christ's College form of the waffle, their crest:

And the person I lived with during the exchange, Edward Roche:

Edward and I became very close over the nearly 6 weeks at Christ's College. We went skiing, went to school, biked to school, and of course lived together for about a month and a half.

I got my own schedule and separated from Edward a little bit at school. I took a statistics class, digital media, english, art, classics, and physics. I had lots of fun during school, but even better was the weekends when we went out and explored Christschurch.

I soon made friends, attended classes, and ran just like I did in Nashville and after settling in for a few weeks, my host family decided to branch out and go skiing at Mt. Hutt:

The first picture is of my host mother Kim Rutter, and the second is of me and Denney Lackey, the other MBA boy that went with me. In the second picture Denney and I are taking a day trip to go speed boating and skip the day of school, and while driving there we took a detour to the mountains in Eastern Christchurch.

I had so much fun while in New Zealand and school, but the best part was being able to spend lots of time with my host brother Edward. Once my stint in New Zealand was over, the family offered to let me tag along on a trip to California for an extra week. I said yes and spent another week living with Edward in hotel room after hotel room, having the time of my life.

While in California we went to Six Flags, Disneyland, and Comic con. These were all more highlights of my trip. I will miss Edward and the Roche/Rutter family and hope to see them again some time soon when they are in the states. And I miss New Zealand's wide open landscape and nature, along with the friends I'd made, but I am glad to be back home with old friends and family.

I would like the thank Mrs. Warner, Mr. Gioia, and everyone at MBA and Christ's College that made this exchange possible. I would also like to thank the Roches and Rutters who made this exchange one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life and put up with me for all that time.