Wendy Foster:
CLASS OF 1988
Normal Community High SchoolClass of 1988
Normal, IL
Wendy's Story
My life the past 20 years (abbreviated :-)
Education:
After graduating from NCHS I moved back to Lincoln, Nebraska. I went to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Marketing and Business Education. I was offered a graduate assistantship with Center for Entrepreneurship, so I went on and got my Masters Degree in Education. While working on my Masters I took six months off to go over and teach in London. Met my future Husband, Hamish while I was there.
I paid for my own college education via various jobs, the most interesting being four years of working as a correctional officer in a maximum security jail! Talk about character building...
Work:
After finishing my MA I worked full-time for the Center and then went off and started my own tour company. While I was touring in New Zealand, I was offered a contract to go do some work in Australia.
As the tour company wasn't going great guns yet and I had been trying to find a way to live/work overseas, I closed up shop and went to work for an
organization called Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE). I helped them set up operations in Australia and the United Kingdom and conducted training in Malaysia, the Phillippines, France, Germany and Poland. It was a great job and I got to meet tons of fantastic and interesting people that were really trying to make a difference in the world.
For the past four years I have been working at the Canterbury Development Corporation. I'm currently on parental leave for a year to enjoy the birth of our first child, Bradan (born Nov 07)
Life:
I really love to travel (have visited about 25 countries and lived and worked in three), meet new people and experience new cultures.
Met my husband Hamish in London in 1996. We had a long distance relationship until he joined me in Sydney, Australia in Oct 2000 and he proposed in Feb 2001. We got married in Sep 2001 in Nebraska (with a second wedding in New Zealand in October) and then moved to London, England end of October. Stayed there two years and then traveled the States for 5 months before heading down under.
We settled in Christchurch, New Zealand (where Hamish is from) in Jan 2004 and have been here ever since. Christc...Expand for more
hurch's population is approximately 400,000 and is know as the garden city. I really love New Zealand. We enjoy camping, kayaking, hiking and dirt bike riding. NZ is known for adrenalin sports. Have done skydiving, caving, river rafting, zorbing and rock climbing, but haven't got up the courage yet to do bungy jumping. I think I'll leave that for my 40th birthday! NZ is an absolutely beautiful country and Christchurch is on the coast and only 1.5 hours from skiing. An ideal position for a girl used to living on land locked plains!
We're big rugby fans and follow the Canterbury Crusaders (local) and the All Blacks (National). People here are surprised to find out not only do I know about rugby, but that I played it at university! A strange sport for a Cornhusker to play :-)
If there is one negative about living in New Zealand, it is that now most of our travel money is spent on returning home to visit family and friends. Although, last time home, we stopped off in Raratonga, which was a treat!
We had our first child, Bradan, Nov 2007. I've taken a year off my job. As I write this, I'm a stay at home mom and I love it. I have gotten into cooking most things from scratch and am learning to be really good at budgeting. If you think gas is expensive in the US, try paying $8/gallon, which is what we pay! Bradan and I walk to most places we need to go as we live very central to all the shops. The second most shocking expense (to me) is turkey...I had to pay $60 for a turkey that would feed 8-10 people at Thanksgiving! I'm definitely thinking of raising turkeys on our 10 acres outside town!
I've been lucky enough to visit a lot of interesting places, meet unique people and learn from lots of mistakes (most of which I had a lot of fun making). My family is for the most part happy and healthy and I have ideal inlaws (couldn't move to NZ if I didn't!).
Plan to travel and live overseas again. Hamish also has an Irish passport, so we can live in US, NZ, Australia or anywhere in Europe. As we both speak a little spanish and LOVE spain, we're thinking that perhaps one day, we'll try Spain.
Until then, if anyone has plans to come to New Zealand, do get in touch with me!
Cheers,
Wendy
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