T-Minus 7 Hours (and change)

Well, I already broke my streak of being good and posting every Sunday...before I even left. Figures.

But, my excuse is that this past Sunday was my last full day at home, so I had a lot of goodbyes and a lot of packing. Both were accomplished, although I have since reorganized the suitcase situation since arriving in LA...the larger suitcase is riiight at 50 lbs (it came in at 53 at IAD). Yikes!

Anyhoo, Dad and I have been hanging out in LA since late Monday evening. Yesterday we strolled around Santa Monica and then headed to the Getty Center, which was pretty cool. Lots of outside stuff as well as inside stuff, and it's up in the mountains so you have a good view of the city. Today we walked up and back on Venice Beach before my feet began screaming in protest since they have yet to adjust to wearing flip-flops again. Oh yes, and I should mention that it's 75 degrees here today. So nice to be outside without a montage of jackets, coats, scarves, mittens and boots. On the other hand, I obviously got sunburned...go me.

Sooo, the plane takes off from LAX at 10pm west coast time (so in the wee morning hours for all EST people). We are due to arrive at 8am on Fri. 2/11 in Auckland. Confused? Me too. The whole International Date Line thing has my head spinning. So effectively I'll be missing out on Feb. 10th. Hope nothing too exciting goes on without me. Also, we get in at 8am? So does this mean I will be forced to stay up and do things all day?? Not really looking forward to that part either...that's what always happened when we took the night flight over to England. And I have inherited the wonderful trait from my dad that I have a tendency to not sleep on planes (or anything moving, for that matter), at least not for any restful amount of time.

The itinerary once arriving is a little fuzzy, but from what I know, I will be in Auckland on the 11th (and that night), and then head out for Rotorua with the rest of my American buddies for our orientation session with Australearn. After all of that, I head to Wellington on the 16th (at 6:45am...I'm not sure why that's necessary). Hopefully by then, I will have been assigned to an apartment or house so that I can move in. So far, I know that I will be living somewhere within the group of apartments known as Te Kotahinga, and that I have a single room. At least those were the housing fees I was charged for last week. It's still a mystery, and no address as of yet, which just gets me a little nervous.

I'm not sure what the internet capabilities will be in Auckland or in Rotorua, so we'll have to see what I can do as far as staying in touch. When I reach Wellington, I'll have school internet as well as internet in my living space, so that should be easy enough.

So, finally, off I go! Wish me luck, and I'll be back before you know it.