After I was slightly close to missing my first plane out of Buffalo, everything went smoothly until I got to Detroit, except for the turbulence and bumpy landing (which actually doesn't bother me, I just like to complain). So I got to my Detroit gate with plenty of time, and boarded and found my seat and then we just sat for about a half hour. There was a baby behind me crying, and its grandmother was trying to calm it down, but she was speaking a African? language or something that was very harsh sounding, so when she tried to soothe the baby, it got scared and cried harder. So after about a half hour, the captain came on the loudspeaker and said that the plane was missing some phalanges, i mean fasteners, and that they would try to fix them, but that the work order wasn't off until 8 pm, and we couldn't get another plane to take us instead, so basically I was going to miss my flight out of lax. So I called Dad and he told me it probably was better to not fly a broken plane (thank you for the wisdom) and then I spoke with the airline reps when I got off the plane and I was super nice to them because everyone in front of me was yelling at them and I felt bad. So we were nice to each other and I made them laugh which made me happy. So then I went and got ice cream and waited until we finally left at like 7:30 or 8ish. When I got to lax there was practically no one by my gate or any other northwestern gate, so i talked to the only guy at my gate and he was helpful and told me to go to the next gate down which was an air nz flight leaving for auckland in like 10 minutes. so i did and the lady there was extremely mean to me and so i went back to the nw gate and the guy wasn't there and so i had a slight meltdown and called dad. when i was talking to him, the guy came back and helped me while i was on the phone with dad. he booked me on a flight leaving in about an hour for brisbane and told me how to get to the international terminal which he said would be about a 5 min walk. the directions he gave me were not actually correct so i asked some other people for help who told me it would take 20 min to walk, so i finally found a bus that would take me. it was just me and the bus driver and another lady and we all had a lively conversation about what we were doing/where we were going. i got to the terminal and found my gate (again by asking some guy. who was really nice) and was extremely happy to get on my flight and settle in. it was around then that i figured out that brisbane was not actually in spain, as dad had told me, but in australia 1. because the flight attendants had australian accents 2. because quantas is an australian/new zealand airline 3. because it would extremely ridiculous to fly from la to spain to nz, and 4. because brisbane is not a spanish name. i laughed quite a bit to myself about that one. the quantas flight was fabuloso!! i got delicious food and there were personal tvs where i could listen to music, watch tv, watch movies (i watched ps i love you and cried a few times, luckily everyone else was asleep and did not see me weeping at a the movie. i actually didn't really like the movie but that's okay i had wanted to see it for a while). i could also play games on the tv and watch our flight movement. i also had 3 novels to read, game books, a website to work on, food to eat, and sleeping to do, so i was quite content and even a bit overwhelmed with what to do first. we landed in brisbane and i accidentally went to customs because that's where everyone else was going ha ha. after they told me where to go for "transits" i wandered around that airport for a while but no one was really there because it was pretty early in the morning (like 6:30). i worked on the badgers website there for a while and it's looking quite snazzy if i do say so myself, although i do need pictures and quotes and rates and stuff. i also was listening to dane cook and was laughing to myself in the middle of the airport, which may have led to people thinking i'm crazy. oh well. so then i got on my flight to auckland where i also got delicious food, including chocolate ice cream! when i landed in auckland i was super excited and went to get my bags and when they didn't come for a while, i realized missing my original flight meant they probably wouldn't be with this one. so i went to the desk and talked with them for a quite a while about getting my bags back so then i went and followed linnell's very specific details about how to find the bus, and i rode to the stop she told me to get off at. while i was on the bus, i talked to the guy next to me about nz and stuff and he told me he's planning a trip to us next year. when i went to get off the bus, the bus driver didn't see me because it was really full, and started to leave the stop and everyone said "nooo someone else is getting off" so the driver slammed on the brakes and i went flying forward and it was a bit messy. haha i was glad i didn't have two huge other bags to lug around though so i called linnell and she came out and we reunited yay!
linnell's edit: so i was not so successful in getting my work done before serita got here, especially the comp sci project which i still have no idea how to do. but i was quite happy not to get up at 5:30 to meet serita's ungodly early bus friday afternoon, and i left her a text to call me and i'd leave class when she got off the bus. so throughout both of my classes that afternoon i had my phone out waiting for her call, which really turned into me playing sudoku on it and not so much paying attention. and as i was going back to ih at 5 and she still hadn't called, i saw a blue and yellow bus (the airbus is also blue and yellow) stopped at the stop i told her to get off at wayyy up the hill and i considered going up there to see if it was her but decided not to, and it turns out it was a different blue and yellow bus, so a good choice. around the time i was writing another text to make sure she was even in auckland, i got a call from an 027 (nz telecom cell phone) number which i answered and it turned out to be serita so i ran up the hill and across the street (not at an intersection) and found her but without any big suitcases. apparently the number that shows up on our phones when we call each other is not the number we dial, but it's the same every time so we just stored them anyway. back to serita.
we went back to her room and had many stories to tell each other and stuff. i was very gross feeling and smelly after years of traveling, so i took a shower (while linnell ate dinner and made me a sandwich), and then we met everybody else to go to the rugby game (it was the auckland blues vs the wellington hurricanes). apparently you're not allowed to take bottles into the stadium, so ollie and ace had fashioned "wine bellies"/"wine babies" by attaching the bag that boxed wine comes in to themselves under their sweatshirts (jumpers). they and the others (mostly boys) were running around being silly, and then left without us because we were waiting for sophie and ej and alex. finally the 5 of us left, and we walked around for a while trying to find the free bus that would take us to the game. we finally saw it and ran to get it and then rode to the game, where there were zillions of people. alex went and bought his ticket and then we went and found our seats in the "party stands" (which were supposed to have live music or something, which we did not see. possibly because we arrived after kickoff) with everybody who had left before us, and kendall joined us eventually. (another note from linnell that i forgot to add before: while we were walking in i looked up and saw this kid staring at me, and then he waved, and after staring back at him for an eternity i realized he's in my anthro tutorial (and had worked together on group exercises before) so i finally smiled back and he said 'you are in my class aren't you?' and i said 'yeah sorry' and then we continued walking the same speed but i didn't know what else to say and it was extremely awkward but everyone thought it was quite humorous afterward)
the game was really fun, a bit nippy, but lots of fun. there were sooooo many people and lots of very enthused fans. there were little kids sitting behind us with their dad and all the kids knew all the players names and stuff, it was really cute. the blues won by 3 points (19-16) i think and when the game was over, it took us foreverrr to leave the stadium because there were just so many people leaving all at once. i was getting quiiteee sleepy by now, and as we walked with the gillions of people walking away from the stadium i was pretty much sleep walking. we got on a bus pretty quickly and rode back to the civic center, the stop closest to ih, and when we got off linnell had to of course talk to her friends (by talked she means, tried to hurry them up). i stood/slept and eventually we made it back to her room, where i happily crashed onto the box spring that i call my bed because i am too lazy to climb up to the top of linnell's closet where would be an ideal place to put the top mattress.
the game was really fun, a bit nippy, but lots of fun. there were sooooo many people and lots of very enthused fans. there were little kids sitting behind us with their dad and all the kids knew all the players names and stuff, it was really cute. the blues won by 3 points (19-16) i think and when the game was over, it took us foreverrr to leave the stadium because there were just so many people leaving all at once. i was getting quiiteee sleepy by now, and as we walked with the gillions of people walking away from the stadium i was pretty much sleep walking. we got on a bus pretty quickly and rode back to the civic center, the stop closest to ih, and when we got off linnell had to of course talk to her friends (by talked she means, tried to hurry them up). i stood/slept and eventually we made it back to her room, where i happily crashed onto the box spring that i call my bed because i am too lazy to climb up to the top of linnell's closet where would be an ideal place to put the top mattress.
so saturday we woke up early and showered and packed and linnell went and got the rental car and so then us two, danielle, ej, and sophie started our road trip to taupo. we stopped at the otara market in south auckland on the way there and spent a few hours walking around. south auckland is where all the pacific islanders and maori live, and when we stopped to ask for directions sophie asked about the 'cultural market' and the guy was like 'you mean the flea market?' and we decided maybe telling them we were coming to see their 'culture' was not the best idea. i was good and only bought a present for kevin for graduation, and nothing for myself, and linnell bought a polkadot hoodie which was only $20, as opposed to $120 in auckland, and a pair of paua shell earrings. we kept driving for a while and then stopped in tirau for lunch. it was a really cute town and every store has some sort of decoration made of corrugated metal, which was actually really cool looking. we had our pbj sandwiches and got ice cream and then kept driving.
we got to taupo around 4ish and so we found our hostel, the rainbow lodge, which was nice, and we put our bags in the 6 person room we were sharing with a guy we met later, and danielle stayed to do homework and the rest of us went mini golfing. it was 10 dollars and i wasn't gonna play to save money but then everyone else said they weren't going to if i didn't and i didn't wanna ruin the fun and i figured it was 10 dollars so why not. so we played and it was lots of fun but a bit chilly. ej wanted to all pick golfer names for the score card, and she was tiger woods, but then we didn't know any other golferes. sophie ended up being happy gilmore, linnell was venus williams, and serita was mia hamm. ironically tiger woods won and happy gilmore got second (the real and pretend golfers). serita did not hit any people with the ball so that was an improvement over her last mini golf experience. there was a couple who had to wait for us on every hole because some of us are not so skilled at getting the ball in the hole. sophie got a hole in one on the last hole which meant she won a free round of golf, but she didn't collect cause she said she wouldn't use it.
after that we picked up danielle and went to pak n save and got provisions for dinner. linnell and i got pasta and cheese sauce mix and bulk candy (after sampling a lot of the bulk candy, we saw a sign that said "sampling is considered shoplifting and will be treated as such" so then we made a fast exit from that area) for a total of 3.10 and so we all went back to our hostel and made dinner which was delicious. we were going to get a dvd from the hostel's library but someone was already using the movie room, so linnell and i played cards in the lounge and everyone else read and did homework in the room. linnell and i went to get ready for bed in there somewhere and had quite an adventure with a sink that was pretty much in the wall, which is not conducive to washing your face, especially if you're linnell and suck at containing water in normal sinks. i was falling asleep at like 9 pm so nel and i went back and i went to sleep immediately.
after about 12 hours of sleep for me, we got up at 9 am, showered, and had pbj for breakfast. today was the day of our super secret adventure! (which contrary to popular belief was only a secret from the parentals so they didn't spend a month worrying, not a surprise for serita) and everyone was very excited/nervous. the company we were going with sent a van to pick us up from our hostel, so we got on and there were two guys also going with us from canada (with the strongest canadian accent linnell has ever heard, i usually don't think canadians sound any different, but they definitely said 'aboot' and stuff like that) who had just graduated from college and were on a 4 month trip to australia/nz/southeast asia. i told linnell we should do that too, perhaps to italy? or south america? anyways, we got to the place and got a talk about buying dvds/photos of our adventure and then we went and got suited and harnessed up and met each of our partner/instructor guys. while we were getting harnessed, most people's partners were doing it, but i had some guy that was getting trained, which slightly worried me. ej's partner checked it though as my trainee was doing it, so i felt better about it. then we all headed out toward an airplane, and as we did, my partner, mikey, who had disappeared came back out, and walked with me. as we were walking, he noticed that i was NOT harnessed up correctly at all and re did it all, and kept saying "bloody frenchmen" (apparently the trainee is french). i felt much better about my harnessing about that, and we got on the plane, and everyone else got to sit on long benches, straddling them with the instructor behind the instructee, but we had to sit on the floor. as we took off, all the partners were joking around and it was just lots of fun. linnell's guy was singing the song from the jungle book movie, and showed her how you could see all the way to the east coast (hawke's bay) and the north (bay of plenty), and lake rotorua and of course lake taupo, and huka falls and the waikato river and a racetrack, among other things. all the other girls were semi-nervous but for some reason i wasn't at all. mikey had a watch with the altitude on it and we watched how high we were going. he complained about everyone else getting a bench and us getting the crappy floor AND having to go first (sitting on the floor made it much harder for him to connect our harnesses) but we got connected and he told me to hold up my legs when he stood up so he was basically carrying me on his front, and to lean my head against his shoulder and to hold onto my harness near my shoulders so when he stood up i did and they opened the door of the airplane and...we jumped!!!!! :D
we got to taupo around 4ish and so we found our hostel, the rainbow lodge, which was nice, and we put our bags in the 6 person room we were sharing with a guy we met later, and danielle stayed to do homework and the rest of us went mini golfing. it was 10 dollars and i wasn't gonna play to save money but then everyone else said they weren't going to if i didn't and i didn't wanna ruin the fun and i figured it was 10 dollars so why not. so we played and it was lots of fun but a bit chilly. ej wanted to all pick golfer names for the score card, and she was tiger woods, but then we didn't know any other golferes. sophie ended up being happy gilmore, linnell was venus williams, and serita was mia hamm. ironically tiger woods won and happy gilmore got second (the real and pretend golfers). serita did not hit any people with the ball so that was an improvement over her last mini golf experience. there was a couple who had to wait for us on every hole because some of us are not so skilled at getting the ball in the hole. sophie got a hole in one on the last hole which meant she won a free round of golf, but she didn't collect cause she said she wouldn't use it.
after that we picked up danielle and went to pak n save and got provisions for dinner. linnell and i got pasta and cheese sauce mix and bulk candy (after sampling a lot of the bulk candy, we saw a sign that said "sampling is considered shoplifting and will be treated as such" so then we made a fast exit from that area) for a total of 3.10 and so we all went back to our hostel and made dinner which was delicious. we were going to get a dvd from the hostel's library but someone was already using the movie room, so linnell and i played cards in the lounge and everyone else read and did homework in the room. linnell and i went to get ready for bed in there somewhere and had quite an adventure with a sink that was pretty much in the wall, which is not conducive to washing your face, especially if you're linnell and suck at containing water in normal sinks. i was falling asleep at like 9 pm so nel and i went back and i went to sleep immediately.
after about 12 hours of sleep for me, we got up at 9 am, showered, and had pbj for breakfast. today was the day of our super secret adventure! (which contrary to popular belief was only a secret from the parentals so they didn't spend a month worrying, not a surprise for serita) and everyone was very excited/nervous. the company we were going with sent a van to pick us up from our hostel, so we got on and there were two guys also going with us from canada (with the strongest canadian accent linnell has ever heard, i usually don't think canadians sound any different, but they definitely said 'aboot' and stuff like that) who had just graduated from college and were on a 4 month trip to australia/nz/southeast asia. i told linnell we should do that too, perhaps to italy? or south america? anyways, we got to the place and got a talk about buying dvds/photos of our adventure and then we went and got suited and harnessed up and met each of our partner/instructor guys. while we were getting harnessed, most people's partners were doing it, but i had some guy that was getting trained, which slightly worried me. ej's partner checked it though as my trainee was doing it, so i felt better about it. then we all headed out toward an airplane, and as we did, my partner, mikey, who had disappeared came back out, and walked with me. as we were walking, he noticed that i was NOT harnessed up correctly at all and re did it all, and kept saying "bloody frenchmen" (apparently the trainee is french). i felt much better about my harnessing about that, and we got on the plane, and everyone else got to sit on long benches, straddling them with the instructor behind the instructee, but we had to sit on the floor. as we took off, all the partners were joking around and it was just lots of fun. linnell's guy was singing the song from the jungle book movie, and showed her how you could see all the way to the east coast (hawke's bay) and the north (bay of plenty), and lake rotorua and of course lake taupo, and huka falls and the waikato river and a racetrack, among other things. all the other girls were semi-nervous but for some reason i wasn't at all. mikey had a watch with the altitude on it and we watched how high we were going. he complained about everyone else getting a bench and us getting the crappy floor AND having to go first (sitting on the floor made it much harder for him to connect our harnesses) but we got connected and he told me to hold up my legs when he stood up so he was basically carrying me on his front, and to lean my head against his shoulder and to hold onto my harness near my shoulders so when he stood up i did and they opened the door of the airplane and...we jumped!!!!! :D
linnell said that watching me drop out the window of the airplane was what scared her the most and made her nervous, so i'm not sure if going first was bad or good. so we flew down really really fast for 6000 ft, during which time my goggles somehow came off so my eyelids were like peeled back haha. also, i couldn't close my mouth, and it was hard to breathe, and my ears popped (all in all, not a great feeling, but so worth it) at 6000 ft above the ground, mikey opened our parachute and suddenly we were just kind of sitting in the air, which was amazing! (all of my past symptoms were gone except the popped ears which i still have one popped ear, which i like to complain about to linnell which annoys her quite a bit :) ) so we just looked around at the amazing view and mikey showed me where a guy hit the ground last year with no parachute but managed to survive, and he let me fly the parachute which was soo cool (linnell did not get to fly hers, but when she asked, her instructor, andy, made them fly in loops and twirl and stuff, and they watched the others jump and open their parachutes above which was really cool to watch, and we saw a sheep that someone had painted its butt red), and then we landed. as we were landing near the tower, mikey said "oops lost control for a minute there" haha and i hoped he was kidding. we landed by me picking my feet up and him doing the work, and basically sitting/sliding to a stop. he was trying to hit the camera guy as we landed, and we were pretty close. when we landed, he noticed my goggles were gone and said "hm, i've never seen that happen before!" we watched everyone else land which was really cool and then the camera guy took a video of us celebrating (which was going to be played in reverse, so he had us throw our hats up and fall on the ground, so in the final version we jump up and our hats fly on) and we went back inside. as we were unsuiting and stuff, we saw another group about to go with our same partners. i asked mikey how many times a day he goes, and he said 7-10, which is insane. that has to be a pretty freakin' sweet job.
we looked at our "exit photos" which are taken 3 seconds before we jump, and mine is absolutely hilarious, so i bought it, and linnell got her's too, even tho they were kind of a rip off ($20), much better than the $149 or $179 videos. then we watched the video and sophie and ej got it (they had paid $179 extra to have a personal camera guy jump with them in addition to the instructor and record the whole thing) and then we paid, and they drove us back to our hostel. we ate lunch there before we left (pbj again) and then drove home, which was fun/nothing too exciting.
we got back at 4ish and linnell went to the gym and i showered and then she came back and went to dinner and made me pbj for dinner again (at this point i was pretty ready for my bags to come with something to eat besides pbj, although linnell does make a mean sandwich) we did laundry and sat around and were silly last night and i fell asleep pretty early again.
today we got up and went to linguistics (very boring old hard to follow professor) and comp sci (pretty attractive young prof) and linnell did class things (although she is completely lost in comp sci at this piont) and i did my puzzle book. neither prof said anything about me being there, so good to go. we walked around campus in between classes and then came back and ate pbj for lunch.
also when we got back, my bags were in the office of ih!!! yay!! so now i have shower stuff and clothes and my converter so my own computer and camera dock and all kinds of fun stuff. so i organized and linnell wasted time on facebook all afternoon. while i was organizing, i found/linnell remembered to give me the second part of my birthday present. it's this necklace (that i actually asked linnell about at the otara market) and it's this symbol that's a twisty thing, that represents two friends intertwined or something, and it's made out of green stone, which you're supposed to buy for other people and not yourself, but you wear it before you give it, so part of your soul goes into it (it's a horcrux basically :) ) so now nelly's at the gym and i'm watching the office finale/doing this. later we're eating dinner and then going to roll training, which will be interesting.
also when we got back, my bags were in the office of ih!!! yay!! so now i have shower stuff and clothes and my converter so my own computer and camera dock and all kinds of fun stuff. so i organized and linnell wasted time on facebook all afternoon. while i was organizing, i found/linnell remembered to give me the second part of my birthday present. it's this necklace (that i actually asked linnell about at the otara market) and it's this symbol that's a twisty thing, that represents two friends intertwined or something, and it's made out of green stone, which you're supposed to buy for other people and not yourself, but you wear it before you give it, so part of your soul goes into it (it's a horcrux basically :) ) so now nelly's at the gym and i'm watching the office finale/doing this. later we're eating dinner and then going to roll training, which will be interesting.
yay for my first weekend in new zealand!!
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