Popping the Kiwi bubble

SAM BAKER/Tribune

SPONTANEOUS EXCHANGE: Heather Garramon left Montana for the chance to create new experiences in Palmerston North.

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Heather Garramon got off the plane in Palmerston North with no phone, no contacts, no accommodation and US$1.35 in her pocket.

After facing some life changes at home in Montana, Ms Garramon told her mother that she was dyeing her hair, getting a tattoo, and moving out of the country.

What started off as a joke sent the 24-year-old halfway across the world, and has turned out to be the biggest experience of her life.

Ms Garramon came to Massey University in June on an exchange from Missoula University; Palmerston North's sister city.

Throughout her stay Ms Garramon encountered a few hurdles.

Having not organised local accommodation she was met with a predicament on arrival at the Palmerston North airport. She spent her first two nights at a Palmerston North holiday park, then a few nights with an elderly couple she met at the airport.

"They became like my surrogate parents."They introduced her to Prime Minister John Key and also hosted Thanksgiving for more than 20 guests at their home last month in Ms Garramon's honour.

Eventually, Ms Garramon settled into a flat on rowdy Ranfurly St with four other girls from Massey. Although their letterbox was smashed up every other week she is grateful for the experience of making her own way in a new place.

A lot of international students prefer to socialise together.

"[They] live in a bubble. Explore. Enjoy, and leave."

Apart from the difference in size, one of the main differences between Massey and Montana universities for Ms Garramon has been the lack of focus on community-based student activities.

Unfortunately, at Massey students just work hard at school, then drink hard, says Ms Garramon. In Missoula, being a liberal arts school, "every student that comes has an agenda and they march around town for four years getting funding for their cause. It's a really active city".

She completed four papers that will count towards her resource conservation degree back home.

Ms Garramon's favourite Massey paper was Maori customs. Although this does not relate to her major in forestry, and minor in wild-land restoration, she really enjoyed learning about native customs, and even visited the Maori carvings on Lake Taupo.

Ms Garramon counts herself lucky to have had such an array of experiences "even though it wasn't all sunshine", she laughs as she looks out the window onto a typical cloud-covered Palmerston North.

Fortunately, the move from Missoula to Palmerston North wasn't too shocking. While the weather has not put on a very good show – Ms Garramon points out this October was the coldest in 64 years – she has found Palmerston a comfortable place to be.

Road tripping around New Zealand she volunteered at a pottery shop, organic farm, and cheese factory. She also joined a Wairarapa wood chopping team.

Ms Garramon hopes to one day return to New Zealand: the country which has taught her so much about herself, where she is from, and where she is going.

"You can have expectations for what you wanna do, but you can't control anything. You just have to run with it."

And in the end her trip was pretty much everything she had been hoping for.