{"id":6169,"date":"2015-08-28T14:40:36","date_gmt":"2015-08-28T14:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/?p=6169"},"modified":"2015-09-21T14:45:56","modified_gmt":"2015-09-21T14:45:56","slug":"its-my-party-and-i-can-cry-if-i-want-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/2015\/08\/28\/its-my-party-and-i-can-cry-if-i-want-to\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s my party and I can cry if I want to"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"CierraNZ20150828d\"<\/a><\/figure>\n
\"CierraNZ20150828b\"<\/a>Sunday, Aug. 23 was my birthday, and for the first time since arriving to New Zealand, I felt the horrible emotions of homesickness. Birthdays are to be happy celebrations, but I was down in the dumps. I had not expected how sad I would be on my birthday. Over the years, I had been lucky with being able to spend my birthday with family and friends each year. This year was a major difference.<\/p>\n

I started off my birthday by talking to my boyfriend and friends from UW-Stevens Point. These conversations brought happiness, but when we had to say goodbye, I felt sadness creeping in. Throughout the day, I received birthday messages from many friends and family members. \"CierraNZ20150828a\"<\/a>The person that put me over the edge for homesickness was my brother who left a voicemail at 1 a.m. in Wisconsin so it would be Aug. 23 in the States and New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Right after I listened to the message, I began to cry. Jane, my cooperating teacher and host mom, was the one who comforted me. She understood how I was feeling because she is not originally from New Zealand either. Her empathy is what helped me realize that I everything I was feeling was alright.<\/p>\n

After my short cry session, I was able to enjoy the rest of the evening. The Murrays hosted an excellent celebration for my birthday. We had a large dinner with friends, family and coworkers. I was presented with small traditional gifts of New Zealand and learned more about New Zealand traditions, too. I received a Hei-Matau (The Fish Hook) necklace which has many meanings that is associated with, but for me personally it represents strength. Another beautiful traditional gift I received was a p\u0101ua shell. I felt very lucky to receive a jewelry made from the p\u0101ua shell, too.\"CierraNZ20150828c\"<\/a><\/figure>\n

It was truly a wonderful evening when I recognized that everyone at my birthday dinner were also family to me. I am very grateful for my host family. I could not have found myself in a better house with better people than the Murrays.<\/p>\n

The next day I even celebrated with my students. They all sang happy birthday to me in the morning. We also got to enjoy homemade Funfetti birthday cake … and, if you were wondering, I did bake the cake!<\/p>\n

Cheers,
\nCierra<\/p>\n

Cierra Bartol-Byers, a senior elementary education major at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, is blogging about her study abroad experience in Namibia and New Zealand<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunday, Aug. 23 was my birthday, and for the first time since arriving to New Zealand, I felt the horrible emotions of homesickness. Birthdays are to be happy celebrations, but I was down in the dumps. I had not expected how sad I would be on my birthday. Over the years, I had been lucky […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":6178,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[391,9,12,414,23,24],"tags":[232,305,312,341,343,344],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6169"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6169"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6183,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6169\/revisions\/6183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}