June 8/ First 48 hours :)

The first 48 hours of this trip has been stressful, exciting, uncomfortable (plane ride), and extremely awesome!!

When we got to the airport, we stood in the "checking" line for 2(ish) hours because the computers kept crashing.  We all ended up sitting on the floor until the problem was solved, which eventually it was.  After getting through checking and security, I started getting super excited because we were about to leave.  My excitment was shot down when we got on the plane.  First off, we sat on the plane for an hour (wasn't moving) because they had to put bags on the plane.  Second off, the person behind me kept kicking the back of my seat.  The three hour plane ride went by very slow.  I slept for maybe a hald hour but it still seemed never ending.  Suprisingly, the thirteen hour plane ride went by so fast.  I think I ended up sleeping ten out of the thirteen hours we were on the plane.  They served us dinner and breakfast.  The dinner was good, it was some kind of chicken/pasta thing with some vegetables and a salad. The breakfast was just some icky eggs.
When we landed in New Zealand, I was so excited that we had finally made it there.  I got my first culture shock when we were in customs.  I was talking to the officer and he told me that my accent sounded really weird.  It was weird for me to think that I had an accent.  My second culture shock happened when we were driving because we were on the left side of the road!!  At first I was scared because I though our bus driver was trying to kill us.  Then I realized that in every country besides U.S, driving on the left hand side is normal. 

For lunch, we stopped in Matamata, or Hobbiton.  They call it that because Lord of the Rings was filmed there! I love those movies so it was really cool being there.  They even had a gollum statue.  I tried my first pie while we were there.  It is kind of like a chicken pot pie, just filled with other stuff.  The one I got had steak, bacon, and cheese it in.  It was delicious!

We went to the luge after that.  It's kind of like go-karts, just that there was no motor or anything.  I did the beginners course but it was still tricky.  The jade factory was really intresting because we learned where it was found and how they make different styles and shapes.  For dinner, we went to a place called Burger Fuel.  It was awesome and the burgers were huge!! They were amazing though!!

Some of the things I'm looking forward to in New Zealand includes the hangi dinner, the agrodome, and the rollie ball thing (forgot the actually name).  In Australia, I'm excited for the bridge climb, the great barrier reef, and meeting the kiwi kids from the college!