Pie-Full of Truth Part IV.

I am in a lot of debt. More than US$50,000.

The state of education funding in America is pretty bad. New Zealanders have it a lot better. They get really inexpensive tuition and a weekly student living allowance. Being a foreigner, I have to pay 4 times the cost that a domestic student has to pay. Even so, after the exchange rate my entire course costs only a few thousand dollars more than one semester at Boston University. Unbelievable.

But I had most of my undergrad covered through scholarship and financial aid (thankfully, because I never would have gone otherwise). But I did take out loans for room and board and other expenses. So here is the breakdown of why I am in so much debt.

NHFC is Natural History Filmmaking and Communication. My current schooling. Is it worth it? Only time will tell.


If you are interested, Other Debt is my car back home. There is under $500 left to pay on my auto loan, and it accounts for less than 1% of my total debt.

NZ commercials

I don't watch a lot of New Zealand TV. I get the basic, national, free broadcast channels(TVOne, TV2, TV3, and C4, plus Prime and Maori TV with very poor reception). Most of the shows I end up seeing are American anyway, but one thing New Zealand is really good at is making commercials. There are a lot of clever, funny ads. There are a lot of bad ones too, but that is to be expected.

Here are a few of my favorites:

First up: an ad promoting domestic travel. It really sums up the country well.





Next are a couple ads for L&P. L&P stands for Lemon and Paeroa. It is a soda made with lemon juice and mineral water from the town of Paeroa. It's an acquired taste.

The first ad is just fun. The second looks at unique fashion phenomena: stubbies.



Lastly there is this great Air New Zealand ad. The final scene was shot at Otago University.

Pie-Full of Truth Part III. Now In 3-D!

Welcome to the third episode in the Pie-Full of Truth series. So far we've seen I've lived about a third of my projected lifespan and spent about 4/5 of that time in schools. Today we compare how much time I've spent at each institution.

Time Enrolled in Each Alma Mater

I just realized I didn't include a summer course I took at Elmira College, but I suppose that doesn't count because I wasn't matriculated and it was during the time I was enrolled at BU.

Pie-Full of Truth Part II.

Here is the second installment of my pie-chart fiesta. Today we look at how I've spent my 24 years.

Percent of life spent in school

That is years of my life I've attended school (preschool, kindergarten, grade 1-12, 4 years undergrad, 1 year-in-progress post-grad) and the few years I haven't.

Pie-Full of Truth Part I.

Here is a new segment I'm going to try for a while. Blogging has gotten boring and tedious, so I've made up some pie-charts about my life. Enjoy the visual insight offered by comparing percentages and relative amounts.

First Up:

Percentage of Average American Male Life Expectancy* Lived

*77.2 Years. Source: The Internets