Eva Hofmans has had to make quite an adjustment since leaving New Zealand.
The former junior world champion rower has switched from sculling to sweeping, and now trains in a large squad and in crews of eight.
Her classes have been in-person for the first time in two years.
The temperature has been below freezing, and the snow, or slush as it has turned into, has not left the ground.
There has been a Covid-19 outbreak — which she has avoided, so far — on the Yale campus.
And most of all, she had had to get used to the way of life in the United States’ northeast.
It is all going well now but the former Bayfield High School rower said it was "not all smooth sailing" at the start.
"It was just such a big difference from home," the 20-year-old told the Otago Daily Times from New Haven, Connecticut.
"Being on a large team here, it was just me and my coach [John Parnell] in Dunedin, then last season it was a small team [in Alexandra].
"Now we go out on the water here and it’s four eights next to each other.
"Covid has made it a lot different to what I thought it would be. Obviously classes are in-person, for the first time since I finished high school two years ago.
"Everything is different here than at home."
Hofmans has just finished her first set of exams, which have gone well.
While Yale is a renowned academic university, she said the main step up came in the depth of knowledge of the professors, rather than the content.
She has not been on the water in a month, since it became too cold to row.
The on-water training sessions were not too different from what she had experienced in New Zealand.
Hofmans said the main difference was training in eights, as that was the best way to get everyone time on the water.
That meant learning to sweep, rather than sculling. Being on such a big team, with some of the best junior rowers from around the world, had helped with that.
"I feel like I now have the ability to row both classes, which has been really helpful.
"Being on a team with so many people, if you have a problem with one thing in relation to uni life, there’s always someone on the team that has been through it as well, that can give you advice.
"It fits into Yale, the way it works. Instead of fighting to be better than each other, you build each other up."
She had raced twice in the autumn season, which consisted of longer races down rivers.
Once was in a four in a regatta against Dartmouth University, while she had also competed in the Head of the Housatonic.
The majority of the racing, which will be mostly 2km races, will come in the spring.
Yale competed in the Ivy League conference and it has ambitions to win its conference championship in May.
That is dependent on Covid-19, however.
The virus has had little impact up until recent weeks.
A rise in cases, though, has led the university to get its students home early and to do their exams online.
If they test positive for the virus, that meant they could isolate at home over Christmas, rather than being stuck at school.
Hofmans is remaining in New Haven, in international housing.
She admitted the experience was a little frightening.
"It’s been a bit daunting, the last couple of days.
"I think most of the semester it’s been fine. Everyone’s masking, and I carry hand sanitiser in my pocket. There’s not been many cases on campus, excluding the last week. We’ve had five or six each week, so you feel pretty safe.
"It’s been different the past week, when more people have been getting Covid.
"Right now, where I am, right at this moment, I am a bit scared about what’s going to happen over the next couple of months."
She has still been keeping busy.
Between study and training, there was not time for much else, although she had attended the Yale-Harvard football game, which was a great experience.
She has made friends with many rowers on her team, and is living with one in a residential college, as well as a friend on the softball team.
Friends were proving hospitable over the holiday break, too.
"Hopefully, it’ll be my first white Christmas. I’ve been looking forward to that.
"I’m going to a friend’s house in Connecticut for Christmas Day.
"Then over New Year’s, I’m going with my friends and their parents in Boston. I stayed with them over Thanksgiving and they liked me enough to have me back."
Hofmans hopes to return home for the American summer break in June.
