Kia Ora!

No my plane did not crash, I have just been so busy since my arrival I have not found time for this blog! But I am watching green lantern now and have found time to get it updated!

Day of Travel

Mon. January 2

After having been charged twice for my plane ticket and getting refunded, I arrived to the Salt Lake City airport only for the man checking me in to claim my entire flight reservation was cancelled! I just about flipped out on him, until I got my travel agent on the phone. It was still considered a holiday so the office was closed. My mom called the emergency hotline while I was talking to my travel agent, after about 25 mins, the man somehow found my reservation and said he got my boarding pass printed………sketchy, I think YES! I got to San Francisco and instead of sitting in the airport 7 hours like all the other girls I was picked up by all 4 of my grandparents and taken out to BJs! Man can a girl get any luckier? It was great to see them all and helped my nerves with my big flight ahead! I got back and waited to board my plane. The weirdest thing was sending my last text. My phone service I turned off, but I still carry it around as it I could be on it! My flight only took 12 hours, instead of 13 so that was a plus. All 20 of us girls flew together and were sat in the same three rows. All of the flight attendants had accents, so what could get me more excited. I loved it! They had over 70 movie choices and some pretty good ones too! They had some tv episodes too! I chose Kung Fu Panda 2 and the Office. I had not slept much the night before and all I could think about was falling asleep for the night. I took my shoes off, pulled on the blanket and somehow managed to get into an Indian style position with my legs on the fold down tray! I never quite got the sleep I wanted. I slept in intervals, like an hour at the most before waking up uncomfortable. I probably slept for 6 or 7 hours total.  I read my magazines while snacking on my nilla wafers and twizlers. I also filled up on a chicken macaroni bake for dinner and a cheese omelet for breakfast. The food wasn’t half bad for airplane food!

The Roes

The Whittakers

On the Plane!

Maori Tongue and My Tourist Pants

All Blacks........HOT

The Grand Arrival

I landed and I could not believe it. It was 4:17 am Wed. January 4^th! It went pretty fast going through customs. I got my two bags and headed out to wait. The airport looked fairly normal; there was even a McDonalds right inside where we were waiting. My host mom Freeda came shortly after to meet us! I said goodbye to the other girls and headed out into Auckland. Hans (the dad) was waiting in a 5 series BMW!  Um so the weirdest thing…..HANS WAS IN THE PASSENGER SEAT AND SO WAS THE STEERING WHEEL! Driving on the opposite side of the road is really weird. I could not watch the driving. As we left the airport I immediately saw the strangest trees. They look like Christmas trees, but the pine needles are growing straight up. I still haven’t figured them out, but I will let you know once I do. I arrived to my new home. I am in the West Bay, which is very close to the water. You can see the city of Auckland from here just over the harbor! It is beautiful here, so many trees. Palm Trees everywhere. I just love it! I am sharing a room with my roommate Emily! It has been so much fun to have someone with me going through all of this and moving into an unfamiliar place. We have our own bathroom and it is pretty big! Because of the different outlets, I did not bring any hair appliances. We are lucky to be given a hair dryer in our bathroom! SCORE! There are 2 children in the family, Michael is 11 and he is fun. He reminds me a lot of Caysen! Elyse is 23 and she is very nice. You pronounce her name Elayse, but only because of the accent. So which am I supposed to call her? I think Elayse because that is her name, right? My name is Kirsten, not Kirsten with an Australian accent! One of Hans brothers is moving to Australia so I got to go to dinner with all the family at another brothers home. It was so much fun. They had a ton of delicious food such as sweet and sour chicken, plain chicken, rice, rolls, and salad. They also had curry, taro, and some other random foods I had never heard of. We all hung out and there were some very cute nieces and nephews! One was about 5 and her name was Braxton. She was laughing at me because I am apparently saying her name wrong. I haven’t seemed to master the accent yet! We then had some apple pie, banana cake, homemade custard and whipped cream, fruit, and ice cream! New Zealand is the dairy capital of the world, so there milk, ice cream, and all dairy is just delicious! I was so tired I fell asleep on the way home!

My House!!

My cute little room!

Bathroom

Trampoline

Kitchen! I love the white!

Backyard!

Day 2

The day began with a crazy adventure. School began today and it is about a 20-minute drive to get to the church building we will hold our classes in. We planned at night so we will know what bus route to take and where to go. We were planning to get on the bus at 6:40am, so we set the alarm for 5:30am. Early! I know! Well unfortunately we forgot to turn on the alarm after having set it! Luckily Emily woke up at 6:15 and woke me up! I jumped from my bed and got ready in a hurry. We ran out the front door and ran all the way to the bus stop. In our rush, we forgot out directions we had printed out, so we just hoped to find the school and our way home. We arrive to the bus stop and this is what we find……..BUS STOP TEMPORAROLY CLOSED. Please use other stop.  Just my luck, right? We ran to look for another stop, but found nothing.  We thought the bus must pass by the stop so we ran back to it, just as we saw the bus coming up the hill. We ran out to the street and flagged him down! He was nice enough to pull over in the middle of the street. We got in, but were unsure what to do. Luckily I was with Emily because I have little to no bus knowledge! She had to pay for the both of us because I had no cash. She only happened to have a $20 and the bus is $3.40 each. He had to flag down another bus with his speaker and get change for us! At least we made it to the bus! Sweating a bit we could finally relax until we got close to our stop. Because it is still a holiday for most workers here, we were the only people on the bus for the first while. Our bus driver is named Tuae? I’m not sure, but I know it sounds like Tour with an accent! He got us to where we need to be and we found the church so early! We had not had time for any breakfast so we went to a coffee shop. I got the most delicious strawberry muffin and Emily got a Neenish tart. We made it to school and barely survived it all day! It is fun to be around all the girls, but the same room for almost 8 hours is killer. We had a picnic for lunch with sandwiches and chips! It was delicious. By the time we got home it was almost 5, we cleaned up and helped with dinner. Dinner was sausage, pork chops, salad, corn, potato salad, and brownies for dessert! I am really branching out from my picky eating, not by choice, but because I cannot say no!!! They asked if there are any foods we do not like, but I just responded with a smile, no I will try anything; this was ironic because I am a very very picky eater and do not like a lot. The salad was made with cilantro…..dang I should have thought before I took such a large scoop because I had to gag it all down and hated every bite. At the end I was like wow this was great that you so much! I better hope this is not a recurring problem! Things are very different here. The roundabouts are the opposite way and it is still freaking me out. You must look the opposite way when you cross the street, I am still trying to figure that one out! Families, at least the one I am staying with are super close. Not a lot of technology and not really ever on the cell phones. The 23 yr old I have never seen on the cell phone! There are many different words they use here, I am still getting used to it! The flushes on the toilets here are crazy! They actually scare me a little bit. There are 2 buttons on the top of the toilet, one for a half flush and one for a whole flush. The toilets are supposed to spin the opposite way, but I have not really been able to tell. You do not really have time to watch the toilet flush because it shoots down so fast, almost like airplane bathrooms. I have only used a have flush and it is pretty crazy, so I do not dare use the whole flush! I will let you know when I venture out and try it one day! I got to skype my family! It was so good to see them and catch up! The nice thing about New Zealand is it stays light until 9pm. I was able to go for a jog last night at 8:30 pm in the light. The weather and sunset was beautiful! It is like paradise here! After my jog I had homework to do and got to bed!

The flushers!

Bus Adventure

Coffee Shop!

I will spend a lot of time here if I continue to take the early bus!

Day 3 It’s Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday!

Well this has been a short week! I cannot believe it is Friday! This has been a short week, literally! We got up and to the bus this morning! The bus driver is so nice!! He asked us how our first day of school was and makes so much small talk! He is a cute old guy! I will have to get a picture. I have found that I can ride a later bus, but it would not have the same driver, so we decided to just go early and do our reading at the coffee shop in the morning before class! It worked out nice today! School was SO LONG today! But I am glad it is over! About 9 other girls and I went to the big Pack n Save close by our school. It is a large store like a Wal-Mart! We sure looked like tourists all in backpacks and wandering around aimlessly. The only thing I bought were these cookies that are a big marshmallow with a graham and covered in chocolate! Delicious! We walked around to some shops that reminded me of Chinatown! They had just about everything in these shops, from Justin Bieber backpacks to costume pieces to pieces I believe are used to smoke weed! So I know I have only been here a few days, but I talk in an accent on accident all the time! It is absolutely hilarious! I cannot help it! Every time a person is talking in their accent I naturally am thinking to myself how I can repeat exactly what they are saying.  As I talk with the 11 yr old Micheal I repeat back to him things he says in an accent. Today I asked a lady for directions and went back over to the group of girls and on accident I repeated them all in an accent. Funny thing is New Zealand is similar to a British accent, just with a twist! My accent sounds more like just a British accent only!  Well I may be coming home with an accent! All us girls split on our own ways to get on our buses to get home. I arrived home in perfect time for chicken salad for dinner. Yes the thought crossed my mind that the parents think I loved the salad the night before so maybe this salad too included cilantro…..ahh I thought, at least I have cookies to eat! To my surprise the salad did not and it was pretty good! We also went to a very cool park and are back now to watch a movie! Tomorrow is going to be a beach day with all the girls! I cannot wait! We are going with 2 of the girls who live by us to a local shopping center called West Gate and shopping around and going out to dinner after the beach! I will let you know how it goes! For now this is about all I have to write and that is a good thing because this is longer than just about any paper I have ever written! Phew! Well I miss my family and friends like crazy and hope they are having fun back in America! I will update this again soon, hopefully so I do not get behind like this! Love you all!

Panoramic of the Park

Some sort of nut or something to climb in!

Beautiful Palm Trees

Michael and I at the Park

Here is some New Zealand Vocab for you all:

Ice Block – Popsicle

Jangles – Sandals

Knit ball – women’s basketball

Trolleys – shopping carts

Motorways – freeways

Sick bed – nurse’s office

Cloakroom – coat closet

Jumper – coat or sweater

Kitchen bench – counter

Togs – swimsuit

Lollies - candies