Birthday in the Southern Hemisphere

This will be a quick post but I thought it would be fun to tell you all about my birthday here thus far. I woke up very suddenly out of a dream (which I never remember) and saw this sign on my door from my flat mate Liz telling me happy birthday in rhyme. I had forgotten so that was a hilarious surprise. So as I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth I see this sign on the back of the door on our white board with another funny bday wish followed by writing all over the bathroom mirror. It was a fantastic way to wake up on my 21st.

So then as I think I mentioned in my previous post, we went to the beach all day to hang out. My friends here asked if they could bury me in the sand for my birthday so of course I agreed. Who could pass up a birthday present like that. So they all proceeded to dig a trench, bury me in it, take pictures, and laugh for a good long time about how I looked like a jacked mermaid. The bus ride home was funny since the busy driver gave me the child rate. I don't know what age you have to be but I think it's 16 and under...I'll have to check that out and hit it up for what it's worth.

Now we're home but are planning on going out/having a fun party tonight. As many of you may know all that really matters is cake but that can easily be gotten I think : ) Well, I should go get all the amazing quantities of sand off me before we take off again. I should also wish Cynthia a happy birthday since she and I are currently in the same day and have the same bday...so I hope you're having a fantastic bday Cyn!!

much love to you all, hope all is well. Check facebook if you have it for a complete photo collection.

Internet is Expensive and Hard to Come by

So the title mostly explains why it has taken me so long to post as of yet.  We're getting internet for our flat soon but it's taking forever for them to come and hook it up.  Other than the communication thing it's rather nice not having a phone and such.  

So for the cool things.  I'm now all settled in my flat in Auckland, I've posted some pictures so have a look.  I have an amazing view out my window and my flatmates are both great.  Orientation ended for my program ended on saturday but it was an amazing time.  We went zorbing (I don't have the photos right now but I will post them soon), to some polynesian hot springs, and also to this amazing geothermal park where we saw bubbling mud pools, geysers, and natural green sulphur lakes.  All those photos are posted as well.  We also went to this amazing farm show where we got to pet lambs and pet the 19 different varieties of sheep NZ has to offer.  It was nuts and I think too crazy to try and describe in this blog...though we did watch someone sheer a sheep and I did go up on stage and milk a cow.  The Linolin on their utters is incredibly nice on the hands.  Bit of a nice surprise really.  NZ has the fastest sheep sheerers in the world.   

After this we went to a flaura and fauna park of sorts where we saw tons of wild trout, some sleeping kiwis, and various other types of birds and animals.  I may have told some of you this already, but there were now mammals in NZ before european settlement so many of the birds became flightless (such as the kiwi).  So when the europeans came and introduced animals such as the rat and stoat, the populations of many of these flightless birds, particularly the kiwi, became endangered.  On top of this, Maoris overhunted many of these species so that caused them great strife as well.  So now there are major conservation efforts to try and save the kiwi and such through controlled egg incubation and release programs.  So that's all for the history lesson for now.

The city here is beautiful, easy to walk save for the tremendous hills.  Auckland and most of the surrounding area basically consists of inactive volcanic cones (the hill bit.)  This means there are also a fair number of islands in the surrounding area that once can reach via various ferry trips.  The ferry building is just about a 10-15 minute walk down to the viaduct (a port of sorts.)  The group is thinking of going black water rafting this weekend so that's exciting.  This basically means we each get our own tube and go down white water in black caves, over small waterfalls etc alllll while looking at the cool glow worms on the ceiling of the cave (that's for you brandon!)  I may also be heading out for one of the islands this weekend to hike up a volcano so we'll see.  We're going to definitely be having a pool party at our apt complex tomorrow to celebrate my birthday so I'll post pictures when that happens too!

Well, I imagine that's most of the fun stuff here for now.  I will be getting a cell phone in couple days but that's mostly for calls around here and for emergencies.  As I said, internet in my flat should be coming soon so people should start getting on skype when they have a chance because computer to computer calls are free!  

I miss you all and the OJ in the US.  For some reason none of it here has yet lived up to Simply Orange back home.  I believe it's all from concentrate or something so maybe I'm just not looking hard enough?   

Send me emails or comments because I want to know how you're doing.  

First Day!

Finally here after a long ride. The planes from DC to LAX and LAX itself were terrible and will hopefully never be repeated but the long plane trip turned out to be great as Air New Zealand was unbelievable and I slept a pretty good amount to pass the time. I guess the booking company we were supposed to use placed everyone on our program in the same row so we sat 9 across in the plane with the remaining three people close by. It was nice to have the opportunity to meet some of my program mates prior to arrival and even nicer to have the window seat. So far everyone seems pretty great.

So I spent my first overwhelming day in New Zealand. It's unbelivably beautiful here but then I'm sure many of you had a sneaking suspicion of this prior to my departure. It was dark and cloudy when we landed but soon after the sun came up it got really sunny and relatively hot...very hot in OH terms. We walked around the city a great deal and then up some huge volcanic cones (no longer active) which dot the city. Auckland was mostly made up by lava flow to begin with. Some places the rocks were so cool because you could tell that they had just been formed by lava flowing out. It sort of looked like it still was flowing just kind of frozen in a picture. I'll post photos when I get the chance to have internet on my computer. Well so then after all this walking we went swimming in the pacific ocean in our togs (swimsuit here) and then visited this underwater world where we saw sharks, penguins, and other exciting sea creatures. After this we had about a half hour at the hotel during which we could shower but not lay down and then off to dinner. I'm now sitting in an internet cafe posting instead of going with some others to get ice-cream...pretty big leap for me as far as I'm concerned.

My cool NZ fact of this post is that there are many intersections here where you can cross diagonally. Yes, all of a sudden the green walk signals turn on and people cross in both directions and diagonally. It looks like mayhem in the intersection for about a minute then everyone clears out and traffic continues. The only problem is that this only takes place in some intersections and they're not labeled so you just have to guess? Either way it's pretty hilarious to watch and participate in.

So now we're allowed to go to sleep although it is only 7pm here and the sun is still quiet high in the sky. I will be heading back to the hotel in a few minutes to pack my bag for tomorrow and hit a very welcoming pillow. Pictures to come so check soon!