Blog Entry for First week, part 1

So I’m a bit behind in my blog as I’ve had little access to internet for this first week. Though I think maybe an entry once a week is probably a good rate. This entry will be quite long as a lot has happened this week! I did journal during orientation in my new journal from my godmother, Nancy (thanks!). Are you ready to hear all about my first week? It’s been quite a week!

Feb 7th – In Transit
Today has been truly great. Granted I’m only two hours into my thirteen hour flight.

My day started at 7:30 am Central Time. After breakfast, which consisted of homemade blueberry pancakes with blueberry syrup, I finished packing my back pack and my mom, dad, dog, and I set off for the airport. There, I was told that there was no reservation number under my ticket # but a helpful united worker who literally sang as she worked (that song, “I believe in miracles”) managed to print me my boarding pass to San Francisco and Auckland (5 + 13 = 18 hours of flying).

After arriving in San Fran, I met two kids off my flight who were also headed to New Zealand and even Victoria, my new school. More and more college-aged kids started clustering at the gate and sure enough, all were headed to study abroad, though only half to Victoria. And we all got onboard just fine!

Currenlty we are parallel to Hawaii (at least according to my personal tv). So the best part of the trips so far is, of course, AIR NEW ZEALAND! Think I’m in love. Not only do I fit in the chair, but there are 79 movies choices plus games and tv and more! I chose a dinner that consisted of warm pasta with a tomato and beef sauce. It came with a roll, cheese/crackers, and desert: almond cake (which I managed to get two off courtesy of the woman next to me). Complimentary wine was served as well. I had both a white and a red. Not a huge fan of wine, but they weren’t too horrible! Tea was served after dinner, naturally.

During dinner I watched An Education, its up for Best Picture and was excellent! Because of the film and the flight attendants, I am thinking and writing in a British accent. Not really that much of a surprise. Also, they are very polite here. We had to put our chairs all the way up for dinner so that everyone was comfortable!

All in all, I’m starting to fall in love with this country and I’m not even south of the equator.

Tuesday, Feb 9th -- Kai

What a day, what an amazing day! After getting less than two hours of sleep on the flight (I tried mom, really I did!) on the flight, I knew I was in for a rough day. Much to my surprise, this has been one of the best days of my life!

After landing in Auckland around 5:00am, our group met up with the IFSA-Butler people (my program) and some YMCA guys who bussed us to their camp, Shakespear Garden. Not so much of a camp as a house located in the heart of paradise, outside Auckland. We arrived and went over some rules and other stuff. We then were fed Kai! Kai is maori (the language of the Maori, the pacific people who made New Zealand their home) for food? Meal? In any case Kai time is a good time of day and occurred about 5-6 times a day for orientation! All the food was prepared by the Y staff and was homemade and delicious.

After Kai, we trekked around the grounds and found a great lookout point that offered 360 degree views. Of course, to get there we trekked through so much shit, literally, there are sheep everywhere and thus there was a lot of dropping that we tried in vain to avoid stepping on. Regardless it was fun and we rewarded with more Kai on top! We trekked back to the house and we fed more Kai, gosh isn’t this paradise? We eat every 30 to 120 mins! After this meal, which was apparently lunch, we set off the shores of the Pacific and set off for some two-person sea kayaking! I partnered with Nicole, who is headed to study in Christchurch. We made quite the team and were very good at paddling in sink, turning, around, and splashing everyone else! We paddled across a bay to some rocks and landed. There we found some tide pools, one had a star fish. Then we paddled back, into the wind, and into some swells! It was wicked fun, though I was so wet by the end. Nicole and I spotted a beach ball on the shore and we…uh…“liberated” it for the Y. As we headed towards shore I tried to stand up while kayaking and ended up in the water eventually taking Nicole with me. After putting the boats up, we returned to the water to soak up some rays (though the New Zealand sun is very dangerous as there is a bit of a hole in the ozone layer above the country).

We were fed a bit of kai and then headed off the hot spring pools! It was naturally hot spring water funneled into man-made pools. They were quite hot and the place also had slides. Though, these slides would never be allowed to be built now. They were fun, mostly because of how excited I was that I survived. Afterwards we stopped off at a pub and had some Kiwi beer.

Back at the house, we were fed our final Kai, delicious bbq that did include lamb. After dinner, I went on a run and ended it much earlier as without the city lights, when it’s dark, it’s dark! I took a shower and was ready to go to bed, when we all looked up noticed that we could see so many stars. So we decided to watch the sky for a bit. It was incredible and probably the first time I ever saw the Milky Way.

Wed, Feb 10th – An Education

New Zealand days are long!

Today began with kai, though I arose around 6:30 and wandered the ground with camera. After our breakfast, we started our pub-less quiz (as we had no pub). This quiz was designed to get us up to speed on all things Kiwi. The second part of the quiz was a scavenger-esque hunt. My team, team poo shoes, came in third (Kai was served throughout the quiz, don’t worry!)

After kai, we split up for activities. Feeling a bit sleepy, I decided to just go to the beach and read. Then more kai! In the late afternoon we started learning how to play touch rugby, which is loads of fun! Pretty easy to play, once I understood the thousands of rules.

We headed up to the house for, you guessed it, more kai! Then we assembled in the hall to hear about Maori culture from Watera, a maori woman. We are planning to visit a marae tomorrow, which is the traditional meetinghouse of the Maori. We were going to take part in the traditional welcoming ceremony in which we would officially be welcomed into Aotearoa (New Zealand) and become people of the land. To do so, we needed male speakers to introduce themselves in Maori and then speak from the heart a small talk thanking the Maori and Aotearoa. I was selected as the third speaker and spent some of the night writing what I would say and practicing my Maori. I dunno what I’m going to say, but I just want to do a good job. Hopefully I won’t say anything offensive…