The flight to Middle Earth was something I was not looking forward to: 13 hours in a plane. Worse yet I had come down with a cold a few days before and the worst day of it was the day of or before my flight. So the thought of sitting cooped up in a plane seemed very miserable. Luckily enough, while checking in my bags I requested an aisle seat, and the seat I was given just so happened to be a bulkhead seat (an aisle of course) and there was no one sitting next to me. This, plus the NyQuil I took at the flight's start - and my resulting 8.5 hour sleep - and the plethora of free movies and TV shows made the flight pass rather quickly.
The way the program is set up for this week is we do a "Bridging Cultures Program" through which we are introduced to Maori and New Zealand culture to help lessen the effects of culture shock. The group of students that I am living with for this week are the 18 others who will be studying at the University of Auckland with me and then the remaining 34 students who will be studying in Wellington.
Upon my group flight's arrival into Auckland, we met Richard and Paul who are our Resident Coordinators for the semester. As we loaded the bus we discovered how truly materialistic Americans are, all with jokes and smiles about it from Paul as he and Richard helped to sort bags into essential and non essential bags for the week. Needless to say, many of my companion's essential bags seemed to be bigger than their non-essential bags. While I'm sure that moving such heavy bags didn't help, we also discovered the heat of a New Zealand summer and Paul warned us of the thinning ozone layer above and the need for sun screen.
It is amazing to discover the laid back atmosphere and culture here. Everything kept taking longer than anticipated. And whereas an American group leader may have freaked out and worried, Paul didn't seem to worry or have a concern. Finally after customs and loading the bus and traffic we arrived to our hotel in Auckland. It seems Auckland, much like LA has a horrible public transportation system. However, more similarly to San Francisco, the city is extremely hilly from its volcanic activity. We were given a short walking tour down to the waterfront, a part of the city that I will most definitely explore again, an explanation on Kiwi phrases (some are Maori and some aren't), and then advised on where to get a phone and given some free time. It was before being set free to explore a bit that Paul and Richard cautiously warned us, while teasing us Americans, to look Right - Left - Right before crossing the street. Needless to say, I can understand why they warn us of this. I'm working hard to look Right first. 
Anyways, for free time, a few of my new friends and myself bought our dinky little phones, found the New Zealand Sky Tower and watched someone bungee jump off of it. The Sky Tower is the second tallest tower in the world we were told. And lastly, we found a coffee shop, Aunt Gloria Jean's in which we got free Wi-Fi to catch up on email briefly. We were given a quick dinner, and then more free time. Between coffee and seeing menu prices and shop prices we discovered how truly expensive everything here is because most things are imported. Luckily, these expensive costs do include tax and tip already. But I think prices can be a later blog post. This week is so jam packed with exciting orientation activities!
Back to the story though… After dinner, I walked back to the waterfront for sunset with a few friends, showered, and got in bed at 21:30 for the 6:45 wake up call. Jet lag hits hard.
Cher Bros
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