Checking In

       First off I would like to suggest not sleeping on the trey table in front of you on a plane for 9 hours. Secondly, I would recommend trying not to stick your head below your seat to retrieve your bag at the same time the person in front of you is reclining their seat; it will result in a large goose egg. So after a full 20 hours of traveling and a pulled neck, we made our way onto the airbus from the airport to Auckland. I thought I spoke quite clearly to the bus driver while asking him about the street our hotel was on, but at that moment it was made clear that I am now a foreigner that will be having many an awkward conversations. I tend to have many in America, but those seem to be a product of my own “unique” humor as it often leaves others feeling weird instead of me. Haha, I find it funny in general and even feel a small sense of failure when I have an awkward conversation since I have a degree in Communication Studies (it should prevent these kinds of things)! But hey, I guess a marine biologist can’t name every fish. Ok...enough of the rambling!

       We stepped off the bus to check into our hotel around 8 a.m. on a Sunday (that means it was 2 p.m. on a Saturday in North Carolina). The hotel called Quest on Mount was very close to the heart of down town. It is located across the street from the apartment style dorms called Wellesley that I will be living when school starts. Since our check in wasn’t until 11, we started the day off early roaming around. I was amazed at how quiet the streets were.  It almost felt like I needed to whisper! I am curious to see if that is how it is every Sunday or if the town was especially shut down because of the Maori holiday we had arrived on. People in the town started to come out by noon and so did the sun! I was especially excited to feel the heat, leaving behind the winter of the U.S. and arriving into the summer of New Zealand was awesome! I wasn’t sure what to expect with weather but so far it has seemed to be cloudy and cool in the morning, sunny and warm up into the late afternoon, and breezy and cool at night. A light jacket or sweatshirt is needed at night, but shorts or jeans with a t-shirt or tank top are comfortable during the day.

  To describe Auckland in relationship to other big cities, the first words that come to mind are cleanest and greenest. Of any of the large cities that I have ever been too, the cleanliness and plant life are quite spectacular in comparison.  Besides the main strip Queen, the parks, building, and streets do not feel like they are a part of a big city because it is all too beautiful. I love the buildings architecture within the town. Everything looks very modern. I think the reason I have not gotten lost yet in Auckland is because there are so many new and cool looking landmarks. Lots of glass and unique shapes are incorporated into establishments. Even chains such as Starbucks or McDonalds are particularly well designed inside. Speaking of Starbucks I think it is cool that the one down the block from me is not only really nice looking inside with huge ceilings, but the doors are kept open and cute little birds are flying around landing on chairs besides you. The people roaming around could be compared to those of New York City, there are lots of different nationalities. Yet the pace is definitely slower, and crowds much smaller. Cars are all around but by no means does Auckland have traffic like big cities in America, especially NY! Not only does Auckland have a taste of the big city, but beaches as well. A ferry ride can take you to multiple different islands or a bus ride can get you to local beaches as well. The harbor downtown is really pretty. There is a place called the Viaduct along the water that has many bars and restaurants. As for food, sushi restaurants and kebab eateries are everywhere but all kinds of food can be found. Kebabs are similar to greek gyros. But food and drink is definitely a pretty penny. For instance, a small soda bottle around the city tends to be around $3.50 in New Zealand dollars. American products are marked up a lot especially. I think pretty soon I may forget what a surplus of something is. Conservation is big in NZ. Especially in the efforts to save water, there are two different flushes on a toilet. And signs of “If it’s Yellow let it mellow, if it’s Brown flush it down,” can be found all around. I have come to realize in the first days that what I had once had unlimited amounts of will no longer be there. Wifi Internet is often $10 for a day or even for just an hour. And it’s either an hour of online time or a certain of amount of data used, whichever one runs out first is when you are cut off. Hopefully in the dorms the rates will be a little better. McDonalds has free Internet but prevents certain websites from loading such as Skype or instant messengers. There is a bit of a monopoly going on as local calls in NZ are $0.89 per minute, but yet it is $2 for a 60 minute international call. Because of that, no one calls unless of emergencies and people use text messages sparingly at $.020 a text.

  For the Superbowl Chels and I decided to pay our respects to America, and managed to find a bar at 12:30 in the afternoon on Monday that was playing the game. The only people watching the game were some American students from Dartmouth, an Ivey league college in New Hampshire. It was nice seeing a friendly American that took us to a really beautiful park and showed us around the campus of Auckland University. However, after some time had passed this particular Ivey leaguer started telling us how rich he was and went on about being served everything on a plate and told us proudly “the world is mine.” We walked our separate ways. Haha, so haven’t made new “friends of a lifetime yet.”