!!!OllEH

My mom has officially moved from calling me her "African Girl" to her "Upside Down Girl" and since blogger won't let me write upside down, backwards will have to do.

Anyway, my last post was Thursday morning PCT an hour and a half before I left so lets go back, shall we?

Before we go back let me take this present time to apologize for the lack of visual stimulation.  There has been a problem with my SD card and I need to buy a new one (its deleted all of the pictures on the card twice now) so until then you're stuck with whatever I can manage to take with my phone, which isn't much at this point, so sorry.

Ok, lets go back..........................................................................................................................................

Thursday morning, after what you can be assured was a very luxurious and restful nights sleep (NOT) I gtot up, updated my blog, finished packing, had my last American shower (for a while) and the folks and I headed North.  North North North until CANADA the fuzzy Davy-Crocketesque hat that keeps our great nation warm.  I was insistent  for a reason that my present self cannot manage to figure out, that we leave extremely early because one never really knows what will happen at the border (right, that was my reason).  So we drove north.  We hit the border.  We were through in 5 minutes.  So we drove around the lovely money-infested neighborhoods of Vancouver with hedges like you wouldn't believe and continued in a giant circle (only getting almost lost once).  Airport.  Mom and Dad dropped me at the airport, after waiting around for a bit and sweet-talking the desk woman into letting me check-in early with the first-class people.  I still got it.  I made friends with the women behind me in line and ended up traveling with them all the way to Auckland, they were great and ended up waiting for me  at every stop to make sure I made it through ok.

Vancouver to LAX gave me some interesting trouble going through Customs:

"So you're American but you drove to Canada only to fly back south to LA??"

"Yes, it was cheaper to fly out of Canada"

"Blah blah blah blah blah (how the conversation continued was not important)"

The girl sitting next to me on the flight to LA Also ended up flying all the way to Auckland with me so we had quite the little party.

On the 11 hour flight to Fiji somehow I landed an exit row in the middle of 4 chatty British men (no complaints).  On my layover in Fiji (where I almost jumped ship and stayed because of the warmth) I found a woman and started talking to her:

"Have you ever heard of Peace Corps?"

"I was in the Peace Corps"

That conversation attracted others and there we were in the Fiji airport, 5 returned Peace Corps Volunteers.

Anyway, I eventually made it to Auckland on Saturday NZ time.  I landed at this backpackers lodge where I intended on staying for 2 nights but have since extended.  I thought I found a place but it fell through.  Now I found another place and I move on Friday morning!

I've walked around, started to get a grasp on the city, learned of a lot of things I need to do and see, hiked a bit, ect.  I still don't really know many people other than other travelers who are at this lodge but that's ok, everyone I ask directions from (very regular occasion)  seems very friendly.

More news: I found a house and move in on Friday morning!  Yeah!  I'll be living with two kiwis and another American girl!  Super excited!

Now all I need to do is take some pictures...I'll do my best.