first post from the city of sails

So I'm finally in New Zealand!! We've been here (in Auckland) for a day now, and boy, it's been a long day.  We landed this morning at 6:30 am NZ time (and the flight was a whole lot shorter than i expected, only 12 hours) and we have been super busy all day.  I was told it would be best for my adjustment to not sleep at all until tonight (it's almost 11 pm here right now) and i am sooooooo shot.  Also, my body keeps telling me to eat approximately 5 hours before i should be eating every meal here, which is really annoying.  But all is well, and it is really really pretty here.  We had a sort of orientation this morning and then a light lunch (subway of all things!) and then we were free to explore the city/do whatever we wanted until dinnertime.  So we walked around the city and went to some parks and these cool botanical gardens and scoped out some good coffee shops.  I don't recognize much here as far as companies or brands but among the things i do recognize are McDonald's (of course), Starbucks, Dominos, Pizza Hut, subway, Denny's (what?), and Quaker.  I've made some cool friends so far, most of whom are going to the same university (called "Uni" here), and some of them are Christians, which is really exciting.

Auckland has lots of dormant volcanoes, so there are large grassy hills everywhere throughout the city.  It is also known as the "city of sails" because of all of the sailboats that are docked in the harbor.  There are a bunch of oddities about here that you will find interesting, like how when kiwis think something is cool or interesting or really whatever, they say "sweet as" instead of just "cool" or "sweet".  It's actually funny with their accents because i always think i am hearing sweet ass.  let's see...they do have really cool accents, and they're super chill, which i like. Anyways, more to come on interesting things about this country, but that will have to wait until i am more awake.

So, all in all things are going really well.  I really can't wait to sleep in a bed tonight.  Tomorrow we have an early morning and are headed down to a place called Rotorua until Wednesday, when we will fly down to Dunedin.  

Also: i tried to post pictures on facebook of my experience so far and for some reason only the 7 from the plane were exported.  SO...i promise to have them available for your viewing pleasure by my next post.





love and miss you all!