MSP to ORD to ICN

My journey to South Korea contained three legs: my hometown to Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport (MSP) in Minnesota, MSP to O’Hare International Airport (ORD) in Chicago, and ORD to Incheon (ICN) in South Korea.  My mom was with me for the first leg and helped me check in my bags before leaving when I went through security.  By the time I checked my bags, it was 5:14am and my flight was due to beginning boarding.  I hurried through the security checkpoint and took off in search of my gate.  Thankfully, I found it quickly and still had a minute to fill my water bottle.

Once on the plane, I watched my luggage be loaded beneath the plane while the crew worked on balancing our load.  During the flight I watched the sunrise and took a few pictures of the sky lighting (I watched the sunrise a week previous in Milwaukee :)) as I typed my previous blog post—Me Mum is Thee Best—on my tablet.  I cried a little as I left too, thinking about how long it’ll be before I see my family and friends again, but I wasn’t sad to be leaving like I was leaving Milwaukee.  It was a strange feeling realizing how much I love Milwaukee compared to my hometown.

This made landing in Chicago rough emotionally for me.  The plane circled near downtown and I had a great time there with a friend a few weeks prior, and then being so close to yet so far away from Milwaukee 😦

Sunrise Over Lake Michigan Above Chicago

After landing, I found a seat at an empty neighboring gate to eat my breakfast, gaze at the large jets outside the windows, and observe a few planes taking off and landing on a relatively nearby runway.  As my flight time approached, I relocated.  This required me to exit security and ride the train over to Terminal 5: International; then proceed through security again.  Asiana has their own pretty boarding passes, so I stopped by check in to have this printed.

While admiring the sheer size of my aircraft (and the equally large one parked next to it), I chatted with a middle-aged man on his way to The Philippines.  He informally teaches kids English there and is also building himself a house during the six months a year he spends there.  His description of the island he lives on, sounds like a good place for an adventure.  Our conversation was cut short when I heard my name on the loud speakers.  My seat was needed for crew, so I was moved to an exit row seat.  (I would soon learn this was a fantastic move—even if it wasn’t a beloved window seat—because I had ample leg room for the duration of my 14 hour flight :D)

I had resumed my post at the window, staring at the plane when new person number two soon came up to chat with me.  He is also from the Midwest moving to South Korea for a year to teach English and will be working for Avalon on the south side of Seoul.  It was really nice meeting someone else so soon 🙂  We continued chatting until the flight attendants directed us down different aisles for our seats.

Flying Asiana via a Boeing 777

Take off is mostly a blur.  I remember leaning forward trying to watch out the small window in the bulkhead door but not seeing much except the wing.  I had truly passed the point of no return; I was confined to a massive jet bound for Incheon, South Korea!

Immediately after the fasten seat belt sign was turned off, the female flight attendants put on aprons (either red with flowers or a pale pink, almost cream, also with flowers) and handed out slippers to every passenger.  The Koreans on either side of me changed their footwear right away and so did I; thankfully I wore warm socks because the slippers were less about keeping your feet warm and more of a cultural thing. (Koreans do not wear their shoes inside homes.  Shoes are removed in the foyer and slippers are worn on the heated floors.)  Then we were given menus with options for both of our lunches as well as a hot wash cloth to clean our hands before eating.  The wash clothes were promptly collected after use.  When the flight attendant came around, we could either drop the soiled cloth in a bag or the flight attendant would pick it up with a pair of tongs.  All of this transpired before we reached the Manitowoc/Green Bay area.  (I enjoyed watching our progress on the screens; my mom, older sister, and two friends tracked my progress too but from the comfort of not-an-airplane 🙂 )

In-Flight Slippers

Also we were soaring at 486 mph (or 790kph) 32,000 feet (or 9783 meters) above the ground and the temperature outside was a frigid -59°F (or only -50°C).

The beverage cart on international flights is always a tasty experience.  I had a white wine to drink before lunch and, as usual when flying, I wasn’t carded.  The wine was extremely light and fruity in taste; I should have asked for a second glass when the cart came by again later.  Good wine can be hard to come by for such a reasonable price (free in this case :P)  I was also given a small snack mix which included mini pretzels, peanuts that might have been lightly roasted, and cheddar crackers that were skinny like pretzel rods.  Overall, not a bad mixture to snack on.

Just in case 486mph is unfathomable: We crossed into Canada at approximately 1:20pm—only 80 minutes after our scheduled take off.  Driving from ORD to Milwaukee can’t usually be done in 80 minutes, much less crossing the whole rest of Wisconsin and half of Lake Superior.

Lunch was served sometime after reaching Canadian airspace.  Since I always fear not having an option and being stuck with fish or seafood, I opt for the vegetarian option on international flights.  On a Korean flight, this means eating two small salads with a balsamic vinaigrette (one salad, tomato, black olives, and cucumbers; the other lettuce, radishes, sweet peppers, and black olives), a bowl of diced fruit (one piece each of watermelon, grapes, honeydew, cantaloupe, and pineapple), white rice with a tomato like sauce, steamed veggies (zucchini, carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli), and a whole wheat roll.  The salad and vinaigrette were tasty, but the whole wheat roll was delicious and eating bread made me happy 🙂

Already being awake for 27 hours was taking its toll, so I curled up with my neck pillow and the provided blanket.  I dozed for an hour to an hour and a half.  This was extremely unfulfilling sleep though, so I decided to be productive and work on long overdue blog posts.  I have a series of posts from the seven months I worked full-time that I never finished writing.  It’s high time these were finalized and posted; I picked a few I thought were from the summer and got to writing/editing.  Three and a half of nine are now complete.  Once the others are finished, I’ll post them altogether.

During this time, I also ate two sad, little sandwiches: one ham and cheese, the other spinach, tomato, and cucumber (the vegetarian option).  Most of the plane slept during this time and the sandwiches were just the light, extra meal between lunches.  First lunch was served according to the time in Chicago and the second lunch was served according to the time in Korea.  These sandwiches were essential to keep me from snacking on the array of sweets tucked away into my carryon bags.

While eating my second sandwich, I also caved and decided to watch a movie.  Such an excellent idea because Boyhood was one of the films 🙂  I’ve been meaning to see this film for months!  I really enjoyed how different it was.  It’s a fictional story that follows one boy and his family throughout his childhood.  The movie even used the same cast, so you also watch the child actors grow up and mature.  Overall, it was a thought-provoking film about family, family dynamics, life decisions, and how all of these change as people grow up.

Following the film, I jumped into a conversation with some other flyers.  The emergency exit takes up a good six feet, so the same couple of men would occasionally congregate there to stretch their legs and chat.  One of them was the first man I spoke with at ORD while staring at the planes (the one going to The Philippines) and the other two seemed to do business together.  We stood around talking about countries (U.S., The Philippines, Vietnam, and South Korea), government, and how the Americans are brainwashed into patriotism that a flight attendant final asked us to return to our seats; apparently blocking the emergency exit is frowned upon.

I don’t know why everyone complains about lack of leg room; I had more than enough ;P

With only 1,844 miles remaining from the original 6,565 miles, we were 38,000 feet up, traveling at 529 mph, and the outside temperature had dropped to -74°F.  Brr.  We were somewhere above the mountains in northeastern Russia, slightly west of the Sea of Okhotsk.

I also had time to watch The Judge.  Robert Downey Jr. is one of my favorite actors and I still hadn’t seen this movie.  The movie wasn’t quite as good as I was hoping, but it was still a good film about mending burnt bridges.  Throughout the movie, I also started idly flipping through Lonely Planet Korea.  My post it notes were currently difficult to retrieve (as they were tucked away in my backpack) and I was too tired to focus on words on pages (typing this is difficult enough), so I didn’t actually mark anything in my book.  I really just want a shower, a veggie-filled sandwich, and an inviting bed.

Second lunch was also served as I watched The Judge.  This included a small salad of lettuce, baby corn cob, tomato, and purple lettuce with an Italian vinaigrette, a bowl of fruit (one piece each of watermelon, honeydew, and cantaloupe), white rice with a tomato like sauce, steamed veggies (green beans, carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli), and a roll.  As with the previous meal, this one was served with water and I also had orange juice.  I decided to save the roll for later because I don’t think bread will be easy to find once I land.

At one point during my movie watching, I also had a visit from my fellow teacher, Erik, who I first met in ORD.  We caught up about how our flights had been so far and discussed our next steps when we landed; we agreed to find our way to the meeting point with all the other Avalon teachers together.  I conveniently memorized the directions provided before flying out.

As the final few hundred miles slipped by, I realized the differences still haven’t fully sunk in.  (Maybe it’s because I still haven’t used chopsticks to eat.)  Despite being a double minority (there are neither an abundance of females nor white people) on the plane, a dreamlike surrealism still surrounds everything to come.  At some point, I expect the shock of not knowing anything will hit me: That will be a whole other post though.

“Cut away every safety net, Live your life so you won’t regret the road” -We Are Giants by Lindsey Stirling and Dia Frampton

Reading Good Books is like Traveling the World

“I want to go places and see people. I want my mind to grow. I want to live where things happen on a big scale.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

When I read a really good book, I’m transported into the story’s world and it becomes a part of me.  These good books are full of new people to meet, new places to explore, new lingo and languages to learn, and new customs and cultures to discover.  Travelling to new places has a similar list of new experiences.  This is why I’m so easily lost in a good book and why I yearn to travel the world.  However, books are only a sample; to enjoy the full meal, one must travel.

New People.  All books introduce new characters at some point and favorite characters were once new and unfamiliar.  Some characters are wonderful and become your friends while you tolerate others because they’re there and part of the experience.  Some characters you connect with and understand (i.e. Hermione Granger) while others are confusing and not your kind of people (i.e. Daisy from The Great Gatsby).  Some characters are also just difficult to endure and contribute to not reading a book (i.e. everyone in Wuthering Heights).  This is also true of people you meet while traveling—or life in general.  Some will become lifelong friends, others just temporary friends, and some will never be your friends.  Either way meeting new people and discovering new personalities is exciting.

New Places.  When you arrive somewhere new the location is obviously new just like when you start a new book.  Sometimes the setting has a name you know (i.e. Oxford in His Dark Materials trilogy), but authors have a way of modifying the facts either for artistic purposes or through their personal filter of experiences with a place.  (For example, if the friends I went to Australia with and I all wrote novels set in Australia, our interpretations of the country could vary drastically because all three of us perceived Australia differently based on our experiences.  Overall, I like the country and try to forget about our encounters with large spiders, but perhaps my friend(s) only remember are the negative spider experiences.)  Ultimately the location of a book is new and so is a travel destination.  Even when travelling somewhere you’ve already been, something is bound to have changed.  Otherwise, there’s usually to do that you haven’t already explored.  I even discover new places in my hometown to explore.

Josephine Falls, Queensland

I find exploring new places extremely fascinating because so many places have a certain amount of magic in them.  I don’t mean spells like in Artemis Fowl or The Bartimaeus Trilogy.  Magic could be the incredible adventures that seemed like a dream (such as when I snorkeled in the Great Barrier Reef), the majestic landscapes that are picture (or cinema) perfect (such as the colors in geothermal pools or watching the sun set in a few short minutes), the magnificent architecture that blends ancient with modern or is simply ancient, etc.  There are many ways to find magic while travelling.  In the case of books, an author’s words weave magical pictures of the setting and acts of magic can actually occur (i.e. the Harry Potter series).

New Lingo and Languages.  Regardless of where you travel to, there will always be new words to learn and novels will also create—or preserve—language for that specific story.  While authors don’t usually create whole new languages, slang terms aren’t uncommon, at least not in fantasy.  Eoin Colfer designs a unique writing system for the fairy people in his Artemis Fowl series, but these symbols can easily be decoded if needed as each symbol represents a single Latin letter.  This isn’t necessary to do unless you want to know what the message scrolling along the bottom of the pages said.  (Yes, I am so much of an “intellectual badass” that I decoded all of them.)  For those who don’t restrict themselves to English speaking countries (or resorts in non-English speaking countries), learning the native language is useful much like decoding the fairy symbols.  You don’t have to learn the native language, but you’ll learn and discover a lot more if you do.

Intellectual Badass

Colfer also incorporates the occasional fairy (swear) word that is meaningless in our world.  Also A Clockwork Orange incorporates its own lingo for readers to comprehend.  Outside of books, this is the case while travelling to other English speaking countries; for example, New Zealanders use “heaps” (lots), “keen” (like), jandels (flip flops), among others.  So even if you’re fluent in a language, there are still new words to learn.  This also stands true for books written about another culture: Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong is written in English but contains numerous French words.  In a sense, this helps immerse the reader in the culture being discussed.

New Customs and Cultures.  Even travelling within the United States, there is a definite change in culture and customs from region to region and even suburb to suburb within a metropolis.  These new customs can vary from food to clothing to values.  For example, crossing a street diagonally is completing normal at major intersections in Auckland; I’ve never seen this in the U.S.  I’ve visited U.S. cities bigger than, smaller than, and similar size to Auckland without ever encountering this phenomenon.  I’ve also never encountered a culture that values beauty and harmony the way Scott Westerfeld’s characters in his Uglies trilogy do.  As each child turns 16-years-old, she/he receives an operation to make her/him beautiful and, by their society’s standards, perfect.  While this may seem extreme, our world also has “extreme” cultures and practices.  Consider Chinese foot binding (small feet are considered beautiful) or the availability of cosmetic surgery (again for beauty).  I’m not saying any of these practices or cultures are right, wrong, positive, negative, etc; I’m simply saying they exist and when travelling the world or travelling through books you’ll encounter new cultures and customs (and it’s exhilarating).

Honestly, I find everything about reading a good book and travelling the world captivating.  I love meeting the new people, exploring the new places, learning the new lingo and languages, and immersing myself in the new culture with its new customs.  While books cover the same experiences as travelling, there’s no substitute for seeing the world firsthand 🙂

Road Trip

“It’s so fluffy I’m going to die.”
— Despicable Me

The weekend started on Saturday with Julia and I picking up our car and driving down to Matamata.  Our sole purpose of stopping in Matamata was to visit Hobbiton aka the real-life Shire 🙂  This is another of my most amazing experiences in New Zealand.  I felt like I was in Hollywood except there weren’t any famous people there now, but famous people spent months on this on-location movie set!  I was giddy with excitement walking through the Shire and passing Bag’s End.  My excitement was nothing compared to the stories our tour guide told.   She had a group all dressed as elves and dance beneath the party tree; another day a man spent the entire day sitting beneath the party tree reading the Hobbit; yet another day a man, dressed as a hobbit, recited Bilbo’s whole party speech from memory.  These are all more spectacular than me bouncing around from too much excitement.

The land is owned by the Alexander family and is located on their working farm of 13,000 sheep and a bunch of cows.  There are sign posts indicating East Farthing, West Farthing, the Green Dragon pub, and other significant places; these places are extremely condensed though as there are only 40 some hobbit holes populating the entire Shire.  Sadly none of the hobbit holes had much, if anything, in them; the only hobbit hole with anything besides dirt is Bag’s End.  One wall is decorated because one scene showed both the Shire and inside Bilbo’s house.  While I couldn’t enter Bag’s End, I did stand inside the door of a hobbit hole!!  Basically, totally awesome 🙂

That night we drove to Tauranga and stayed with Julia’s friend, Lea.  We talked, went out for pizza, watched the All Blacks beat Ireland in another friendly, watched Love Actually, and I slept in a real bed.  I had a great night, despite being ridiculously tired and ready for bed immediately after eating supper.  My pizza was topped with roast beef and simply delicious.  Even though I was half asleep and remember very little about the movie, I did enjoy it.  I’d like to watch it again…and when I’m more awake.

Sunday morning, Julia and I drove to Rotorua to do the Skyline Luge and hike the Redwood Forest.  Despite already luging here, I had just as much fun the second time.  Hiking through the Redwood Forest was fantastic.  We went a couple hours before dark, so the sun shined through the trees.  Unfortunately this meant we didn’t have much time to hike.  We chose a short 75 minute track, but followed the horseback signs and walked the track in 10-15 minutes.  We were so confused, but after going through a second time found the trail we wanted to walk.

From the forest, we drove to Taupo and spent the night there, so we were close to our next activities: Taupo Cliffhanger Swing and unknown.  The swing was amazing; Julia and I went tandem and I don’t know why I was nervous.  The initial drop frightened me, but in my defence I had no idea we were about to drop.  Also the first swing backwards freaked me out because we didn’t spin and I couldn’t see where we were swinging to.  After this I was fine and had an excellent time 🙂  I really wanted to go a second time, but didn’t feel like paying, especially when it would cost me more.  (I paid half price for a voucher, otherwise, we might not have done the swing at all.)  Instead I spent my money on photos and a video.  This was a much safer adrenaline rush than bungy jumping, but the rush didn’t last as long as my rush from skydiving.

We stopped by a café for brunch before leaving town.  I only mention the café because I had a delicious, warm cheese scone that reminded me of cheesy biscuits in the States.  I drove us to Otorohanga Kiwi House.  Yes, I (mostly) successfully drove on the left side; the mostly is because my lead foot finally got me pulled over.  Granted it took almost four years and a foreign country half the world away.  I’m pleased to announce I didn’t get a ticket, despite exceeding the speed limit by 21 km/hr (~13mph).  Oddly enough, seconds previous I was exceeding the speed limit by 30 km/hr (~18mph).  Perhaps I didn’t get a ticket because I was ridiculously polite and apologetic or maybe the paperwork wasn’t worth it when I only had a week left in the country.  Either way, I kept my NZ$170 (~US$140) and slowed down for most of the trip.  I couldn’t help myself when I reached the motorway, but the verbal warning wasn’t the only pressure to slow down.  It poured so hard the windshield wipers couldn’t keep up with the rainfall.

The Kiwi House was a perfect end to our trip because Julia and I watched two kiwi birds running around doing whatever it was they were doing.  The one did a lot of standing around; the other kept running back and forth between the wall and the other kiwi bird.  Sometimes the running kiwi bird would touch the stationary kiwi bird with its beak and seemed to frighten him/her.  I never wanted to leave them; they were so cute and fluffy.  There were other birds outside too, but most of them weren’t as interesting.  Paradise ducks are interesting creatures though as they mate for life and starve themselves to death if their mate dies 😦  It’s really quite sad, but I applaud their devotion.  The other birds included moreporks, quails, wekas, teal ducks, keas, oystercatchers, mallards, and a few more.

Despite the chilly weather Saturday and Sunday plus the downpour of rain on Monday, the weekend was a complete success.  I’m happy with the activities we did since we didn’t have those planned out before departing.  I’m also satisfied with my left-sided driving skills, but prefer the right-side as shifting left-handed was quite awkward.  Knowing which side to stay on is easier because the steering wheel is on the right side placing the driver in the road’s centre.  Definitely still a learning experience though.

“I promise to come home to you…Don’t count the miles, count the I love yous”  –“Miles” by Christina Perri
I love you!!! –> For more adrenaline
I love you!!! –> For driving on the left side (and not getting a ticket)
ILYs: 175

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Wellington

Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction.
–Anne Frank

With the semester done, I had two weeks to travel, pack, and relax, so I flew down to Wellington for three days.  I didn’t know exactly what to expect from this impromptu holiday; I just wanted to cheaply see more of the North Island and not sit around my flat in Auckland.

My flight was the best ever because there were two cute little kids sitting near me and the flight was only an hour.  The little girl was somewhere near my niece’s age because she had more teeth, similar coordination (as far as I could tell), but didn’t talk very well.  The little boy was only a few months old and simply precious.  One hour is absolutely nothing in a plane, especially compared to my looming flight home.

When I arrived, I checked into my hostel and went to walk around town.  I took pictures of the railway station, government buildings, Cathedral of St. Paul, the national library, and archives building.  I planned to return my last day and tour any buildings I could for free.  First, I wanted to orient myself with the city and explore my options.

The one place I did stop to tour was Old St. Paul’s Church.  This became my final stop because it was becoming dark.  The church had a beautiful, wooden gothic style inside that I’ve never seen before and I could take pictures with flash 🙂  I also loved taking pictures of the stained glass windows; they’re so well done.  While there I spoke with the curator, learning the organ has 1,316 pipes and having the opportunity to see the bells.  He told me the bells must be upside down and allowed to drop in order to ring, so playing a tune requires five people with impeccable timing.

My walk back was cold and dark.  The wind was biting at my exposed skin and reminded me of the wind in Milwaukee.  I managed to take a few pictures of the city at night before losing feeling in my fingers to the cold.  Since I took a different route back to my hostel, I almost got lost by taking a right when I should have gone left.  I realised my error within a block or two and quickly corrected my route, so as to find heat.

My accommodation was wonderful.  The heat was on, supper was included, and the other girls in my room were really nice.  The heat in my room kept my bunk really warm and I loved it!  The supper was a bit small, so I bought dessert and upgraded to a larger portion the next night.

Two of the girls (French and English) were living in the hostel while working and searching for more work.  They were both really nice and the French girl reminded me of my friend, Alyssa, because she looked a lot like her and had the same shy, friendly personality.  The first night another French girl roomed with us; she was working in Queenstown and was on her way back from hitchhiking her way through New Zealand.  I think she’s crazy to hitchhike.  The second night a German girl volunteering throughout the country stayed with us on her way to her next volunteer position.  Despite every bed being full, I enjoyed meeting these girls.

The second day I bought a muffin from the supermarket for brunch before exploring numerous free museums.  I learned about the history of New Zealand’s money at the Reserve Bank Museum, awed at the splendid Wellington Cathedral of St. Paul, viewed historical documents at Archives New Zealand, wandered through the Wellington Botanic Garden, discovered the history of cable cars in Wellington at the Cable Car Museum, rode the cable car back into town, ate a cheap as late lunch at McDonald’s, read about incredible New Zealand women at The New Zealand Portrait Gallery, and enjoyed a few hours at the Museum of Wellington City & Sea.  Everything aside from food, souvenirs, and the cable car ride was free, so I was happy with how little I spent; even the cable car was cheap because I’m a Kiwi student.

Originally I planned to spend Wednesday on the South Island, however, new information about the ferry ride persuaded me otherwise.  I knew the ferry ride to Picton would be longer than my other ferry rides, but the travel agent at my accommodation said from the time I arrive at the Wellington ferry dock until I dock in Picton is four hours, three of which are travel.  I get sea sick after an hour, so I didn’t want to spend two hours releasing my stomach contents only to repeat the process again that night.  Also the most time I could spend in Picton would be 5-6 hours, so I’d spend more time on the ferry than in Picton.

Thursday was my final day, so I hiked Mt Victoria, stopped by Oriental Bay Beach, explored Te Papa Museum, and relaxed at the public library.  For the second time in Wellington, I took a right when I should have gone left.  This wrong turn led me around Mt Victoria instead of up the mountain.  I wasn’t paying any attention to where I was going and went so far out of my way that I almost walked off my map.  Once I found the mountain base, I easily found my way to the top.  Getting to the top wasn’t as easy physically because most of trails were quite steep to be hiking in jeans with a purse.

The view at the top was marvellous despite the freezing cold, wind, and rain clouds.  I could still see the whole harbour, Cook Strait/ the Pacific Ocean, the CBD, and the airport.  I had an interesting incident with a group of Spanish speakers at the summit as well.  The guy asked me to take a picture of their whole group, but his English was so horrible he couldn’t form a complete sentence (or in this case question).  I totally misunderstood what he was trying to ask, but when a girl helped him in Spanish, I understood what she said and consequently what the guy had tried to ask me.  Maybe my Spanish isn’t as bad as I thought…

I stopped by Oriental Bay Beach to eat a snack and admire the random fountain out in the water before visiting the Te Papa Museum.  The fountain provided more entertainment than I expected and so did searching for shells 🙂  On my way to the museum, I passed a colourful sea mural with several animals I didn’t anticipate seeing until I realised the mural incorporated all of New Zealand’s waters.

The museum was giant, but not as interesting as I thought it would be.  The first couple levels were geared more towards kids.  While I enjoy simplistic exhibits, I’m not interested in learning through arts and crafts.  The Awesome Forces section started extremely interesting with information about shifting plates and Gondwanaland (aka Pangaea).  I learned Christchurch is moving further south every year because it lies on a different plate than most of New Zealand.  The Living Cloaks special exhibit was also interesting at first, but pictures aren’t allowed and the various cloaks don’t change much from one to another.  The feather cloaks were incredible and I couldn’t imagine weaving so many feathers into a cloak, but they basically all looked the same.  The contemporary art section was also great, but again I couldn’t take pictures.  There were a couple works I really wanted pictures of too.  I enjoyed the exhibits on New Zealand history because this didn’t focus solely on the Maori people.  Pasifika immigrants were included as well as European immigrants.  This was the first I’d really learned about the European settlers.  When New Zealand was being heavily settled, I could have received free passage from England and easily would easily be admitted into the country.  Today, I qualify for permanent entrance if I receive a job offer.  The top level contained practical pottery.  The pieces included a fruit juicer, sauce cups, a water jug with faucet, and other kitchen items.

I still had time before my flight, so I picked up my stuff from the hostel and killed time in the library.  I worked on a blog post and checked stuff online using the free Wi-Fi.  Sitting down felt great and my seat had a cushion 🙂  Relaxing felt great after being on my feet for two straight days.

At the airport, I met up with Julia who I’d be road tripping with that weekend.  We swapped stories about our three days in Wellington and discussed our plans for the coming weekend.  Since the airport was small, our view was the dark, rainy night instead of the inside of our gate.

“I promise to come home to you…Don’t count the miles, count the I love yous”  –“Miles” by Christina Perri
I love you!!! –> For not wasting my second to last week in NZ
I love you!!! –> For doing lots in Wellington
I love you!!! –> For learning on my holiday
I love you!!! –> For not spending much money
ILYs: 173

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Bay of Islands, Take 1

I finally had the chance to say I went up north on holiday.  During this three day whirlwind of an adventure, I took 624 pictures/videos.  The majority are pictures, but I took an unusually large number of videos for me.  All because I had an activity packed weekend.

My trip started early Friday morning; the travel bus departed at 7:30am and was, as is typical of Kiwis, late.  I couldn’t believe I was awake at 5:30 am, arrived on time, and the bus couldn’t.  So far, I wasn’t thrilled by this adventure, but there were enough activities to look forward to.

On our way up, we made several stops, some were fairly random.  The first random stop: an 800-year-old Kauri tree.  This tree was gigantic; I couldn’t believe the facts about this tree.  The McKinney Kauri tree is 11.89 metres to the first limb, 7.02 metres around the trunk’s base, 43.1 cubic metres of wood, and 800 years old.  Hugging an 800-year-old tree made this stop worthwhile.  There’s also a 2500-year-old Kauri tree in New Zealand’s Northland, but I didn’t get to see that tree.

Our second stop was at a marine reserve for a glass bottom boat tour.  Two sections of the boat’s floor were replaced with glass, so passengers can see the marine life.  There wasn’t anything exciting, just a bunch of snapper fish and sea weedy plants.  We also visited a cave large enough for the boat to fit inside, but the swells were too high and taking the boat in would have been too dangerous.  Maori legend says a creature living in the cave holds a beautiful Maori girl captive.  The tour itself wasn’t nearly as fun as afterwards, monkeying around on the rocks and in the trees.  I had too much fun climbing in the trees 🙂

The second random stop we made was to see a carving of Gandolf.  I thought this was going to be more spectacular, but I was quite disappointed.  Granted the carving was ridiculously tall, there wasn’t that much detail to the carving.

We stopped in a small town with some beautiful, public artwork from a semi famous artist.  This was our third random stop.  The public toilets had a beautiful entrance; there was a mosaic couch; and one building had a huge mural painted on it.

After just over seven hours of travel and stopping, we finally arrived at Paihia.  We made one stop in Paihia before unloading at the hostel.  Our stop was at a scenic overlook of the bay and Rikesha helped me take a couple great jumping pictures; I accidentally jumped out of the first picture, but the second turned out great 🙂

Saturday morning was another early morning for our excursion to 90 Mile Beach; in reality the beach is closer to 90 kilometres.  When the beach was first explored by Europeans, they took three days to travel the entire length of the beach.  In those days, one day of travel was 30 miles.  During our drive down the beach, it was raining and windy, but the sun came out long enough for a rainbow to appear.  Saying I’ve been to 90 Mile Beach is more exciting than actually being there.  Due to the weather, there wasn’t much to see (visibility wasn’t good).

Concluding 90 Mile Beach was sand boarding on the dunes.  This was fun, but would have been tons of fun if the weather was more cooperative.  The first two runs, I went down the small hill, but hiked up a steep hill for my final run.  On my way up the steep hill, the wind slung wet sand at me; I was covered in sand from head to toe.

Next was the stop I looked forward to most: Cape Reinga.  While the weather was atrocious, I still had a good time.  It was pouring down rain; the wind was gusting at—supposedly—50 knots (somewhere around 45mph); and visibility was extremely restricted.  The wind attempted several times to blow my poncho off over my head, but this didn’t stop me from walking all the way to the lighthouse.  I even saw the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean colliding 🙂

The fourth random stop was the Gum Diggers’ Park.  I saw a tree that was buried for approximately 100,000 years and dug up to collect gum.  This isn’t chewing gum; it’s a special tree sap.  I was too car sick to listen when the bus driver explained about the park or read all the descriptions as I walked by.  I saw several gum diggers’ holes, learned the origins of Wellington boots, and entered a gum digger’s hut.  At the trail’s end, I rubbed a huge chunk of gum that is 20,000 years old!

After the Gum Diggers’ Park, our fifth random stop was a museum dedicated to Kauri wood carvings and even had items for sale.  I really wanted to buy something, but everything was really expensive.  I really wanted to buy a little carved Kiwi bird, however, the price tag read NZ$40 (~US$32.86).  I couldn’t bring myself to spend them much money on something so small, even if the Kiwi bird was carved from Kauri wood.  There were several other phenomenal carvings such as a shell, hummingbird, tables, and chairs.

My favourite event of the weekend was Dolphin Watching on Sunday morning.  We saw a small pod of bottle nosed dolphins shortly after departing the wharf.  I took tons of pictures and was happy to find the majority of them turned out.  Seeing the dolphins was absolutely fantastic!!  The dolphins jumped some around and played near the boat 🙂  Just as great, I didn’t feel any motion sickness; unfortunately this didn’t last.

We couldn’t stay with the dolphins for too long because we had other places to visit.  The boat passed several of the 146 ish islands in the bay.  Our final outward destination was Hole in the Rock; this is a small island with a hole in an outcropping large enough for boats to pass through.  This was the point in the trip though where my motion sickness hit me like a ton of bricks.  I went from feeling so great I was hungry to emptying my stomach into two plastic bags.  I spent the return trip, where we stopped at an island for lunch, with my forehead on the handrail at the back of the boat.  Once at the island, I laid down in the grass to relieve the remaining nausea and dizziness.  Before the hour on the island was up, I was well enough to eat a container of delicious Hot Chips—in my opinion, a NZ delicacy.  I remained below deck until we got back to solid land, in order to prevent my motion sickness reoccurring.

Rikesha, Christina, and I got off the boat across the bay from Paihia in Russell.  This cute little town use to be known as the Hell Hole of the Pacific because Russell was the first port many sailors saw after weeks at sea.  The waterfront was once lined with bars and brothels.  Now there’s nothing but adorable little shops with souvenirs, ice cream, and New Zealand’s oldest operating petrol (gas) station.  Russell also has a wonderful pebble beach which I enjoyed immensely.  I found numerous small shells and stones that I brought back with me as souvenirs.

For the duration of the bus ride back to Auckland, I listened to my iPod.  Thank goodness, I didn’t feel sick the whole way.  I even felt well enough to eat a full meal 🙂  The weekend was a ton of fun, even if I did get sick.

“I promise to come home to you…Don’t count the miles, count the I love yous”  –“Miles” by Christina Perri
I love you!!! –> For having a good weekend despite experiencing motion sickness
I love you!!! –> For being myself aka a monkey
I love you!!! –> For braving the elements
I love you!!! –> For seeing wild dolphins
I love you!!! –> For eating delicious Vintage Crème with Strawberries and Triple Chocolate ice cream
I love you!!! –> For experiencing New Zealand’s Northland

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Road Trip to Coromandel Peninsula

There was a large trip being organized via Facebook to travel to Coromandel Peninsula.  To make numbers more manageable, smaller groups were formed and everyone just went to the same place and met up with even more people.  Rikesha, Christina, Sarah, Sharnay, Shakira, Gavin, and I rented a minivan together for two days and two nights for our road trip adventure.

Our trip started off a little rough because we couldn’t locate Sharnay.  I knocked on her apartment door and tried to open the locked door, so I could knock on her room door.  She never answered me; thankfully she answered the door when Shakira knocked, otherwise, we were going to leave without her.  Once Sharnay and Shakira made it down to the van, we finished loading our stuff into the way-back and were on our way.

The drive was great considering Sarah has never driven on the opposite side of the road and we left during rush hour.  When we got off the motorway at the base of the peninsula, the roads became super curvy and narrower making the drive feel longer.  At one point, we stopped along the side of the road to take pictures of the sweet as oreo cows (see picture below).  Thankfully I didn’t get carsick the whole drive there 🙂

Once in Whitianga, we unpacked at the hostel and went in search of a restaurant still serving supper at 8pm.  Being a small town and New Zealand, a lot of places were closed.  We managed to find a place with personal-sized pizzas and large burgers.  After supper, Rikesha, Christina, Gavin, and I went for a dark walk on the beach.  Riding in the van pent up some energy, so I released this energy by sprinting through the sand 🙂  For as wonderful as I felt running, it was a bad idea because my shorts were caked in sand and my fleece was splattered with sand.

The next morning we went to Cathedral Cove.  On our hike down, we stopped by Gemstone Bay and took pictures on the rocks.  None of the pictures were as magnificent as at Cathedral Cove.  The cove was giant, the beaches were beautiful, and the water fantastic.  Of everything I’ve done thus far, swimming in the ocean is a definite favourite.  For most Kiwis, this is an ordinary experience, but for me, this is a once in a life-time opportunity.  The ocean doesn’t exist in Wisconsin 😦 and swimming in lakes and rivers just isn’t the same experience; there’s something crazy and wonderful about the waves, the vast size, and commonality of the ocean.  I didn’t care that the water was cold, I had goosebumps, or it was raining; I WAS SWIMMING IN THE OCEAN!  I could have swum at Cathedral Cove all day and probably would have if we hadn’t already planned to also visit Hot Water Beach.

On our way over to Hot Water Beach, we stopped for lunch and ice cream.  This would be an insignificant detail if Sharnay hadn’t lost the ice cream off her cone like a little kid in a movie.  As we laughed at her misfortune, I almost lost the ice cream off my cone.  Thankfully I have quick reactions and immediately caught my ice cream.

We met up with another group of AustraLearn students at Hot Water Beach and shared their hot water hole.  A hole can be dug and filled with hot geothermal water at Hot Water Beach.  This works best during low tide because there is more space on the beach to dig.  The majority of people left the beach, but we refused to leave our hot water pool until the tide made us.  I wanted to rinse off in the ocean before we left and saw how close the tide was to our pool.  When Gavin asked to be buried, I jumped at the chance knowing he’d be buried under wet sand when the tide invaded the pool.  To help the tide along, I dug channels in the walls of our pool and the water flowed right in chilling Gavin multiple times.  He didn’t seem to mind; he probably knew something would happen because I always pick on him (all in fun).

That night we had supper at a local sports bar and stuck around for trivia.  While we didn’t compete, we still participated.  We should have competed since we got quite a few correct, especially the question about the area of U.S. states 🙂  We also attempted to determine each of our roles in this “proper family” of ours, but didn’t solidify much past the parents…lol.  The rest probably won’t be funny, so I won’t even bother to explain it here.

The next day we drove the winding roads to Coromandel Town and my motion sickness decided to slap me in the face…actually it was more of a punch in the stomach.  I wanted to sleep the hour drive (my motherly instincts kept me awake most of both nights), but the roads threw me around too much and my stomach didn’t appreciate this constant movement.  Sarah had to pull the van over because I thought I would throw up; I didn’t, but I still felt sick after my head stopped spinning.  I finally felt completely better after wandering around Coro Town and sitting along the creek chatting with Gavin.  The rest of the group wandered through the shops and we met up to leave.  I felt sick again on the way back to Auckland, but I curled up and fell asleep in the front seat.  This helped a lot, but I was still really happy to be out of the van and able to relax in my own room.

Returning to Auckland after this trip was the first time I felt truly homesick.  I wanted to tell my family all about the trip, and I really wanted to sleep in my own bed, eat a home-cooked meal, and thoroughly clean myself up.  A big hug would have felt awesome too, especially after feeling sick for most of the day.  Sleeping does wonders for the mind and body though, as does being in a familiar place.

“I promise to come home to you…Don’t count the miles, count the I love yous”  –“Miles” by Christina Perri
I love you!!! –> For loving the ocean
I love you!!! –> For not losing my ice cream
I love you!!! –> For having a sweet as time with friends (“proper family”)
I love you!!! –> For controlling my homesickness
ILYs: 23

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The First Ten Days in Auckland

I love Auckland!  It’s a large, vibrant city with endless activities and experiences to discover.  Every day I find something new to do and learn more about what this city has to offer.  This is what I’ve been up to since moving into Wellesley Student Apartments in Auckland.

For Valentine’s Day four of us from the AustraLearn Program (Gavin, Rikesha, Sharnay, and I) went to the movie theatre down the street to see Chronicle.  It was a great time with friends, especially when we almost couldn’t pay for our tickets.  The movie theatre doesn’t have a ticket booth; there’s a ticket kiosk, so tickets can only be purchased with a card.  We decided having one person buy tickets for all four of us would be faster than each of us trying to work the machine.  Gavin offered to have us pay him back because he hasn’t had any problems with his card and was sure it would work.  There’s a first time for everything since his card wouldn’t work when he attempted to buy the tickets.  Rikesha tried her card but to no avail.  Finally after trying my credit and debit card, my debit decided to work.  Thankfully we were able to carry out our intended plan of seeing a movie together.

 I had an interview with the workplace supervisor for my internship and another staff member I’ll be working with to make sure this internship would be a good fit for me.  I was asked about my strengths, weaknesses, and learning goals before being given a tour of the department.  Overall, all went well as I’ll be starting the second week of classes.

Rikesha, Christina, Gavin, Mario, Sven and I took the ferry to Rangitoto Island.  (Christina is Rikesha’s Norwegian flatmate while Mario and Sven are German students Christina met on Facebook.)  The ferry ride was hilarious because the strong wind made it hard to stand and blew loose items everywhere.  Holding onto my camera was a task.  We made the most of the short trip by taking goofy, funny, and scenic pictures.  My hair has never been a bigger disaster than after this ferry ride.  Once on the island, we were given a guided tour via tractor and trailer half-way up the volcano and around most of the island.  The tour paused when we were half-way up the volcano, so we could walk the rest of the way to the top.  The view was absolutely spectacular, even when we weren’t all the way to the top; the view was breath-taking.  We were close enough to Auckland yet to pick out landmarks (Harbour Bridge, Skycity Tower, etc) and made sure those landmarks were in our numerous pictures.  This was one of my favourite days in Auckland thus far.

International Orientation and Communication Studies Orientation can be summed up in one word: BORING.  International Orientation was a full day of information, some of which was irrelevant and could have been replaced with the bits of relevant information from the Communication Studies Orientation.  This orientation was only a half-day, but was geared towards first year students who would be receiving their entire degree at AUT.  The best part was I received a free lunch both days.

After International Orientation, all the international students were invited to the Munster Inn by one of AUT’s international advisors.  This advisor, Kenneth, plays in the band that had a gig at the Munster that night.  I loved dressing up a little and dancing with friends, however, I still don’t like people who are tipsy and around other tipsy people.  They just get too loud and have a tendency to lose control.  The whole AustraLearn group got together for drinking games before going out and this just isn’t my scene; I prefer smaller groups of people who drink less and I’ll stick to that.  Christina, Rikesha, and I ended the night by eating Burger King in my living room and Rikesha almost fell asleep on the floor.  The night wasn’t terrible 🙂

Another of my favourite days in Auckland was the trip Sharnay, Christina, Gavin, Rikesha, and I took to the Auckland Zoo.  I looked up how much it would cost and what bus to catch, so travelling went off without a hitch.  The zoo is huge and had tons of animals, many were the same as the zoos I’ve been to in the States, but this one was more themed.  Some animals were grouped by their native location like African Safari and Australian Outback.  More animals that could live cohesively were grouped together (zebras, giraffes, ostriches and kangaroos, emus, wallabies).  We watched one of the tigers being fed, saw one of the elephants walking around with a zookeeper, and witnessed a morepork snatch its food from the ground.  Seeing the elephant walking around was the best part of the day because my niece loves elephants more than any other animal.  Seeing the elephant reminded me of her and the elephant noise she makes.  Another highlight was catching glimpses of a kiwi bird running amongst the undergrowth of its shared home with the morepork.  I took tons of pictures that will provide life-long memories of a wonderful day. The only sad part of this trip was seeing so many little kids; I was delivered my first little dose of homesickness because I miss spending time with my youngest sister and niece.  The last time I went to the zoo was with my niece 😦

Rikesha, Gavin, and I finally found somewhere in Auckland to swim.  At the viaduct, there are stone stairs leading into a roped-off section of water.  We haven’t swam there yet, but got our feet wet by walking down the stairs into the water.  I’d forgotten about oceans having tides until this day.  More and more of my legs were underwater and I my shirt was splashed by the waves as the afternoon tide came in.  We plan to go back there, but haven’t yet.

Rikesha, Sarah, and I went on a successful mission to find Albert Park.  The park isn’t very far away, but in a different direction than we usually go when out exploring.  The park is beautiful and there are several crazy trees that are just sweet as.  I expressed my inner monkey by climbing a tree, but restraining myself from climbing too high (going down is always a lot harder than going up).  I will be visiting this park again several times throughout the course of the semester.

I wanted to clear my head and relax, so I asked Gavin to go for a walk with me.  He enjoys exploring the city and walking with him is always enjoyable.  I intended for our walk to be fairly short and sweet, but our legs got the better of us.  We ended up walking 6.5km through parts of Auckland we hadn’t previously explored.  Unfortunately I spent most of the walk keeping my dress from flying up in the breeze and resorted to walking barefoot in hopes of relieving the pain my blisters were causing me.  The blisters didn’t seem to last though because they didn’t bother me the next day.  My luck is getting better here; the blisters didn’t last and I wasn’t sunburnt from my 6.5km walk (I forgot to put on sunscreen).

My nightly routine now consists of playing cards with my friends and flatmates.  Almost every night we get together in my bedroom or my living to play Uno or anything with playing cards.  We usually play 21 or BS when using the regular playing cards, but Uno is always a favourite.  My nights feel empty when we don’t play cards together.

I probably won’t get as lucky next time I forget to wear sunscreen and have that much skin exposed.  Either way, I’m getting tanner (slowly but surely) and having an amazing time.  Hope my friends and family in the States are enjoying living vicariously through my blog posts and photos on Google+ and Facebook.

“I promise to come home to you…Don’t count the miles, count the I love yous”  –“Miles” by Christina Perri
I love you!!! I love you!!! –> For creating fabulous memories with new friends
I love you!!! –> For securing an internship 🙂
I love you!!! –> For surviving a day and a half of mindless orientations
I love you!!! –> For finding somewhere in Auckland to swim
I love you!!! –> For not getting burnt to a crisp and not popping my blisters
I love you!!! –> For finding fun, safe ways to pass the time
ILYs: 19

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Packing and Travelling

In short, I hate packing my life into a suitcase or two.  There is just too much to bring, especially because I don’t know exactly what to expect.  I’ve researched the climate, temperatures, etc, but no amount of research will properly prepare me and allow me to effectively pack for five months within the confines of a couple suitcases.  I managed though, and while I feel like I forgot something, I can’t seem to place what that something could be.  With some luck, if I forgot anything, it won’t be important enough to cause me any grief.

I also only repacked my suitcases four times, so I’m fairly happy.  I’m unhappy because the final time took me five and half hours, leaving me four hours to sleep before a full day of travel.  Not the best scenario since sleeping on a plane is hard without space to get comfortable.  I thought there would be more space between the seats, even in economy, to stretch out; I wasn’t expecting a footrest, but not eating the seat in front of me (when it’s in its upright position) would be nice.  Either way, as I write this portion, I’m flying over the Pacific Ocean with a sky full of stars!

My mom and younger sister, Emily, came to the airport with me and walked me in to security; this is the longest trip of my young life and I’m doing it alone.  They came in to calm my nerves and make sure my journey didn’t start off poorly.  Before I flew out of the time zone, I was privileged with a final goodbye from my older sister, brother-in-law, and niece 🙂  The flight to San Francisco was uneventful; I had a window seat and no one sitting in the middle seat, so I caught an hour short nap.  With the window seat came a great view of the plains, Rocky Mountains, San Francisco Bay, and the Golden Gate Bridge.

My big mouth seems to catch attention from all the wrong people. While in line to check in for the international flight in my trip, I overheard a man talking to a couple and the couple was preparing to be separated.  Being sympathetic towards the couple, I commented that that’s a really long distance relationship.  California to New Zealand is 12 hours by plane and my brain won’t figure out the time difference right now…  The guy decided to turn his attentions to me instead.  He babbled on analyzing the “perfect symmetry” of my face and hair (except my hair and bangs go to the right, not down the center, so they’re not symmetrical) and moved on to suggesting books to read.  Coincidentally he recommended White Fang by Jack London which I almost brought with me to read; he also mentioned Sea Wolf.  I’ve never heard of it, but if it exists and is any good maybe this guy knew what he was talking about.  A few minutes later, the man who was standing in front of me in line at check in was in front of me again, this time waiting to get through security.  He asked if the other guy was bothering me and said the guy seemed a little kooky plus smelled like booze.  I agreed as I realized what the stench was surrounding the first guy.  Thankfully, I haven’t seen smelly booze, babbler guy since and ideally won’t again.

I like New Zealand already because since waiting for my San Francisco flight I’ve had a craving for fresh fruits and veggies, healthy food.  Both airports had let me down, MSP more so, but Air New Zealand and their friendly Kiwi crew turned my stomach into a happy vegetable.  When booking my flight, I requested the vegetarian meal option.  This was mostly to avoid eating any seafood, however, I’ve developed cravings in recent months for fresh fruits and veggies because I’ve become so accustomed to eating them.  I was not disappointed by my vegetarian meal: bowl of grapes, small salad with a lemon vinaigrette, whole wheat roll (with NZ butter), crackers and Egmont cheese, and a pumpkin based ravioli.  Everything was absolutely delicious and I wish I could have had more of the ravioli.  The ravioli noodles were stuffed with steamed shredded carrots, a small green delicious veggie (green chili peppers I believe), squash, and eggplant.  These veggie stuffed noodles were set on top of steamed carrots, cucumbers, and squash, and topped with mashed sweet potatoes.  I’m getting hungry just thinking about this deliciousness!  (Ironic side note: the brand of lemon vinaigrette was Naturally Fresh and the first ingredient was High Fructose Corn Syrup..ha ha)

I also already like NZ because I got to have red NZ wine with my supper 🙂  I wasn’t carded or even given a second look when I requested wine as my beverage.  Americans are too uptight about alcohol consumption.  Example: I’m sitting with a New Zealand woman and an American woman; the American woman glanced at me when I ordered my wine, but the New Zealand woman smiled at my choice.

I’ve found a downfall to my beloved window seats: I have to climb over people when I want to leave my seat.  Dang; why do I need to pee all the time?  (Thought you’d all want to know about my dilemma.)

Fun Facts: The Boeing 747 I’m riding in holds up to 379 passengers, has a maximum cruising speed of 920 km/hr (~550mph), and can take off with up to 396.9 tonnes of weight. I don’t know how far home is from San Francisco, but San Fran is 10,503 km (~6512 miles) from Auckland and according to our captain takes 12 hours and 20 minutes to complete.  Courtesy of the International Date Line, my total travel time appears to be 48 hours, however, in reality it’s only 24 hours.

“I promise to come home to you…Don’t count the miles, count the I love yous”  –“Miles” by Christina Perri
I love you!!! –> For having an awesome iPod with a long lasting battery 🙂
I love you!!! –> For travelling internationally
I love you!!! –> For loving NZ before I even get there (hope I don’t jinx myself)
I love you!!! I love you!!! –> For missing my family and friends but knowing it’s all worth it in the end
ILYs: 5 (Keep count)

Oh yeah, the Golden Gate Bridge is in San Fran