2009/10 - a Year in Wales - Thanks to Rotary International (District 9930, Rotorua Sunrise)

28th September 2009

I am finally up and running! Thanks for your patience. So here I am, in Wales, thanks to District 9930 in New Zealand, specifically my sponsor club of Rotorua Sunrise, and also my host club in Wales, Swansea Bay. This scholarship will undoubtedly change my life, and hopefully enable me to change other people's lives as well. So, where to start? I guess, with who I am...

Ko Glennora te waka
Ko Tawhareroa toku maunga
Ko Rotoma toku moana
Ko Waiariki te rohe
Ko Ngati Pakeha toku iwi
Ko Rotorua toku wahi
Ko Te Puke-o-Hineheki toku marae
Ko Ethel Rushbrook raua ko George Korte oku kaumata ki te taha ki toku whaea, no Matawai raua.
Ko Nora Watson raua ko Maynard Ramson oku kaumata ki te taha ki toku matua, no Whakatane raua.
Ko Claire-Elizabeth Ramson taku ingoa.

So basically I am from a small place called Lake Rotoma, near Rotorua. I studied Materials and Process Engineering at the University of Waikato, and then moved to Wellington where I lived with my brother and his wife. I am a polymer engineer, and am studying an MPhil in biopolymers in Swansea, Wales, this year.

I will post some catch up videos, but I swear they will improve!! Apologies for the lisp I seem to develop on camera...