“Ready or not…”
This was my first thought as I climbed into my host dad’s car this morning and we drove off on the left side of the road to my new home in the sleepy little neighborhood of Mt. Albert. But, I’ve skipped some time.
The flight from NY to LA began with some stress trying to get my tickets printed and my bags checked in JFK. In light of hurricane Irene, (or possibly the recent decline in general IQ) , things seemed to be moving slower then usual . Saying goodbye was tearful and hard, and as I climbed into the plane I wanted to turn back and run home. Finally me and two other NY program mates made it to LAX and met up with the rest of our group of 17. We had a bit of a layover in the airport and by the time we finally began boarding at 11:30PM on Tuesday August 30th , I had already donned my crazy suit in public (Aladin pants, giraffe socks (!!Thanks to LBT), and a cape that I made from the plane blanket I stole from my first flight).
13 long hours later we arrived, 8:30AM Thursday, September 1st in Auckland! Our HWS professor was there to meet us after we made it through customs (afraid of instant deportation). Exhausted, elated, and starving for some real caffeine, we set off to our hotel only to have our bus run down on the highwa
y into town. We made it there though, and our prof had a busy day scheduled for us to beat the jet lag (this schedule, however, did not include showers, which we were smellily unpleased with). We had a quick costume change in the conference room at the hotel , grabbed some brunch, and we were back on the road to Devonport, an island in the bay of the city.
(View from top of Mt. Victoria)
In Devonport, we perused the shops (overpriced! Thankfully I left my wallet back to avoid impulsive retail therapy). We hiked the hill on the island called Mount Victoria, and from the top we had an amazing and windy vista. We braved some more gale force winds and brief moments of freezing rain back on the ferry and we headed back to the hotel for some washing up before an early dinner on our own. About half the group, including the prof, headed downtown from the hotel to find some sushi. After that, we tried to stay up as late as possible to fight the jet lag – which proved to be quite the challenge! I did manage to legally buy my first beer in a bar on Queen St. called Steinlager. Small joys.
The next morning we met with our home-stay coordinators at the University of Auckland (UoA) and got some do’s and don’ts explained to us. After that, we toured the campus a bit and came upon the Marae where we will have our welcome ceremony on Monday. This will involve the group performing a song of sorts… updates on that to follow. For dinner on Friday the group headed up to the Sky Tower, which is the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere, to have dinner at the Observatory Restaurant. The view was unbelievable, and so was the food! The only hitch was when a friend and I decided we would try to eat an oyster for the first time… this did not end well. The oysters ended up spat back into their shells. Fail.
(View from Sky Tower down to street)
This morning we woke up early to meet and be taken away by our host families. It already feels like we have done so much together in the past two days as a group and as excited as I am to be with the family I was a bit sad to leave the comradery of the hotel.
Arriving at the house was enough to knock the jetlag out of me. The family, Wayne and Dora, are a young Samoan couple who have both lived most of their whole lives in Auckland. They have two children, a daughter who is 9 and a son who is 4. They are also currently hosting another international student, a young man named Ali who is Saudi Arabian. Since I have been here, there has always been at least two members of t
heir extended family in the house (including Grandpa and Grandma who live in a house in the back). Almost immediately I felt the inclusiveness that comes with a big family. And the loudness :).
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