Meet Anastasia Gutorova

Anastasia Gutorova, TAFY student, Auckland campus

Anastasia Gutorova is from Ukraine and is studying TAFY at our Auckland campus.

"My name is Anastasia. I am from a big industrial city called Donetsk, Ukraine. Not one of the picture postcard tourist cities but fun nevertheless. There are alot of young people and there is a great range of things to do. As well as the night clubs and shopping centres, there are cultural and artistic pursuits like ballet and theatre.

My time in New Zealand has been great. Before coming to New Zealand, I was in Pensacola, Florida. The people there were more fake, they tended to appear to be one thing to your face and another behind your back. In New Zealand the people are more straight forward. I particularly like the lower drinking age in New Zealand.

Something fun I have done was going to the “Spooky House”. It is located in an old psychiatric hospital. It was really scary but fun too. I am getting used to New Zealand rugby, it's a tiny minority sport where I come from. My favourite team is the All Blacks.

I have been working at Harlequin’s restaurant at point Chevalier this year and have learned a number of things from it. I have learned about a more authentic side of New Zealand life. I am always amazed by the amount of beer that New Zealanders can drink.

Taylors College teachers are really cool. The course of study was easy enough so that I had the time to do other things. This enriched my time here, as i was able to do lots of other social things (work, going out, boyfriends). The subjects i am taking are Maths A & B, Economics, English and Computer Science. I hope to study law at Auckland University. I chose Taylors College because of its world ranking."