Fun Friday

Day 2...Or really first full day on the west coast. Started early, but good for the jet lag, we all stayed in bed until about 6:30- which felt like 9:30, which let us make the most of our first day vacationing.

You can tell we are in the middle of wine country when you can take this photo waiting at a red light.

The day started with breakfast at a diner by the side of rt 29. We found it on Yelp, but decided it was worth it when there was an 18-wheeler parked outside.

When in Rome, you decide a 10am tasting is a good idea, so we stopped at Etude for some light pinot noirs.

All was really good,  but decided that they should also apply for a spirit license because in addition to their wines, Étude produces two $150 bottles of brandy,  which you can only smell...and boy did they both seem worth it. Anybody have a spare $300 to loan?

From there we met up with family and had a great lunch by the river in Napa (did  YOU expect Napa to have a river? Lol) it was such a nice visit and I am so glad everybody made the drive to see us. 

We did try to tour the jelly belly factory after lunch, but the line was so long (another surprise) that we just opted for the gift shop instead. 

After lunch and failed jelly beans, the family went home and we decided to rest and game plan the next few days. Around 4:30 we decided it was too late for this lazy town to do much more vineyard visiting, so we opted for a tasting bar instead. Of course the one that the tour book said was located in a Victorian house of ill repute was the one that caught our eye...now dedicated to small batch vineyards, it's called the Vintners Collective. We had an AMAZING time tasting their red wine flight:

All were pretty expensive, but we will certainly be back since it's one of the only places that stays open past normal business hours. We were happy we decided to venture into their construction zone, after being closed due to damage from a 6.0 earthquake back in August,

the tasting room was open even though there was no heat...But it's Ca so we were fine, and the wine was all worth it! 

From there, it was dinner time, but still full from our later lunch, we decided to go to the tapas bar which we had recommended to us from VC called Zuzu.

Another place worth the wait. Once satiated we slowly made our way back to the hotels, full and happy. 

But it's early to bed early to rise, as we want to make it to Calistoga tomorrow for an early morning gondola ride to Sterling for another full day in Napa Valley.

Time Travel is Confusing

So I'm just confused...I'm sitting in LAX on Saturday June 20th at 8:21 pm...however I keep on thinking its Sunday! 

Fun story though, I landed in LA at the very same time I left my flat in Wellington: 2:30pm. Does that mean I was in two places at once? Or was it just instant time travel? It didn't really feel that instant lol

The flight was pretty low key though. I am so used to traveling in the US and needing to get to the terminal way before my flight I left a little early. My flight was at 5:30 so I booked a airport shuttle for 2:30 thinking that the shuttle would pick up other people on the way and I would need a little extra time. WELL I was the only one in the shuttle and there was NO traffic in the city, so I was at the airport a little before 3. I was checking in for an international flight and had two extra bags, so I thought I would need the extra time. The Air New Zealand lady was very nice and checked my bags all the way through to Boston so I wouldn't have to deal with them in Auckland. But it turns out that NZ doesn't really worry too much about terrorist attacks and security never takes very long, so I just waited around the airport for about 2 hours. Not too bad though, I did write that last blog post and did some reading. Since I was only flying up to Auckland the first leg of my journey was considered domestic; in which case you do not need to take out your liquid containers, which the security lady condacendly told me that I don't need t take out my liquids for a domestic flight (how was I supposed to know???). The short hop up to Auckland was not bad at all-- only an hour up and down not too tough on the ears and no screaming babies. I landed at 6:30 and had another 3 hours to kill in the airport. So I called the flat one last time to use up the credit I had left on my cell. Then at 7:30 the All Blacks vs. France Rugby game started up and I watched that until I was called for boarding. As the plane was boarding, the flight attendants were giving us updates on the All Blacks game, which I thought was funny...the All Blacks did end up winning (very exciting!!) and the whole plane clapped lol. We took off on time and all in all the flight was not bad. It was 12 hours flat, and I was able to get heaps of sleep, which was nice. I watched two movies and read some of my book. The only down side was that my feet swelled up to be about 4 times their normal size. Of course I didn't notice it as it was happening, though I did notice that my feet were feeling hotter than normal. As I stood up they felt kinda tight, but I didn't think too much of it. I was wearing pants so I didn't see the swelling until I lifted up my pants at one point and saw my huge cankles that had developed. I'm working at keeping them elevated and they are pretty much gone, hopefully the last leg of the trip doesn't affect them any. 

Once in LAX life wasn't took exciting. Though it did take me forever to get through customs and then get my boarding pass. My bags of course were the last off the plane, so I was waiting around forever stressing that my bags didn't make it all the way and were stuck in Auckland. I had checked 2 extra bags, a duffel and a brown box with all my books in it. I waited at the carousel until all the bags were taken off it and it stopped...my box never came off the plane!! So I found someone who looked official and asked what I should do and he asked if it was a brown box. I said why yes, do you know where it is? and he pointed to a random space on the floor on the opposite side of the carousel from where I was and said that boxes NEVER go on the carousel! (again how was I supposed to know!?) well then I got through customs in about 2 minutes..I at least thought they were going to xray my bags or something, but no I just walked up to the man handed him my piece of paper he stamped it and said go on through. SO really I was just a worker for the airlines moving my bags....why couldn't they have done that?? They were marked all the way to Boston!?!?!?! I would have understood if they wanted to xray them to come into the country like they do in NZ but no...so really POINTLESS

So then I found my way to the United airlines (sadly the international terminal has NO directory of the airport, so I had NO idea where to go. But thankfully I discovered the inter-terminal bus and the nice bus driver took me to where I needed to go. Here began my two hour endeavor to get my boarding pass (it was probably only an hour...but it felt like two!!) I first walked in looking for a human because I didn't believe my itnerary information had the right stuff to do an e-check in because I didn't do an online check in since I was in the air. I managed to find the area with the humans and tried to walk into line to talk to one of them....my first mistake. The human guarding the entrance to the que told me that I WOULD be able to check in at the kiosks becuase I had printed out information (but he wouldn't look at what I had printed, he just told me to go there). So I stood in line for a kiosk for about 45 minutes got up to the kiosk where it balked at my refrence number (like I thought it would). So back I go to the que guarder....where he asked why I was back again and I said that it didn't like my info. He then directed me to the ticketing counter where I waited in another 45 minute line. Once I got up to the woman, she proceeded to tell me that I was at the wrong counter. Now being very frustrated I told her my story and she had said she had noticed me wandering and that she wanted to be able to help me but that the system at the computer she was sitting at only did ticketing, she couldn't check anyone in (which again made no sense to me...) but she did walked me back up to the talking head and yelled at him for being so annoying to me and pointed me to the correct line where I had to wait for another 45 minutes!! I was however in the right place (third times the charm) and got my boarding pass. Then I hung out in Bradley for a while where I got some food and washed up in the bathroom and chilled on the internet. Then it was over to security at 8 and now I'm writing this post waiting in the terminal.

So for now I am just chilling in the terminal...I'm pretty much done with traveling, I just want to be home!

Bitter Sweet Endings

I have come to the end [full stop]

Truly I didn’t think I would ever get here. When I wrote my first post back in February waiting to leave, I never really expected this day to come. I had expected that time would go on and that I would at one point return to Massachusetts en route to Marion, but it felt so far away…a distant memory that I would never have. But here I am sitting in the Wellington Airport waiting to go through security and board my flight up to Auckland to leave the land of the long white cloud.

It’s a hard thing to leave—Aotearoa. Once you come to this isolated island in the end of the world you never really leave it, you just become displaced from it. Like many real New Zealanders before me, I leave knowing that New Zealand has truly affected me and that I never will really leave it, because to leave it would be to lose it’s affect and influence, and I don’t think I ever will.  New Zealand, the experiences, and the people I have met here, and the memories will always be with me…no matter how far away I am.

It’s a funny thing to think that this experience I have been thinking so much about for the past three years is over, that college is almost over! (Well not really…but still the end is way closer that I am comfortable with) But it’s also funny to think that my decision to come here almost felt nonchalant and yet it has had just a huge affect on me. When I was deciding on where to study abroad, nothing else really came to mind. It was like NZ was calling to me. There was no really decision to make, I was going to study in NZ it was just finding the right program. I don’t really even remember when I first thought about studying on the other side of the world, I just always was.

There is so much that I have learned about and fallen in love with in this country, it’s hard to think that I won’t just be coming back and returning to 32 U Clifton Tce. That mice and drafts are a thing of the past. If you had asked me a month ago if I would find leaving this hard I don’t think I would have believed you. I have become attached and I don’t really want to leave. Though, don’t get me wrong, sleeping in my water bed 48 hours from now will be very nice (mice and draft free…even heated!), but it seems strange that Sophie and Brendan won’t be home waiting for me with a pot of coffee steeping in the press.

I have become connected. I have started to make a life for myself here. Studying abroad is a cruel trick—just as you feel settled and comfortable in your new surroundings, its time to leave and you have to pack up and walk away from the life that you have become so comfortable in. Just last week a tourist asked me for directions and it was the first time that I felt comfortable enough to give them directions and not just say “sorry I’m a tourist too!”

I have met people here who I consider true friends and who I will miss desperately. It’s strange, it feels like I am at camp all over again, saying good bye to my international friends who I had become so close with over the past few weeks and who I felt I would never see again…except multiply a few weeks by a few months and that is how hard I am finding it to leave. Although I do know I will see my NZ friends at some other point in my life…it might not be back on this enchanting island, but it will be somewhere. As I sit here in the airport terminal almost two hours after I left my flat for the last time, AND I AM STILL CRYING!!! Good god I am such a girl sometimes….lets hope the Advil I just took will shake this stress headache that I am getting before we take off.

More to come from either Auckland or LAX…

Study Break

So I have my last final at 9am on Thursday and then I will come back and tell you all about my extremely fast week and how I am spending my last days in New Zealand....but thought I would leave you with this YouTube link of a comerical I am studying for my MarComms class.

Enjoy!

~Marjorie 

Wairarapa Roadie

Back from wine country...Will talk more about it when i have a little more time (maybe my tuesday night...) but for now here are some pictures...

Typical NZ Wine Country: Vines and COWS!!

Best Flatmates EVER!!

Some of our wine...I ended up taking home two...So did Brendan and Soph got 1

Pretty NZ Wine....Perfect Weather!!!

YUMM!! and other things

So tonight I decided to step out of my cooking comfort zone and try a meat that I normally don't have, but that is SUPER cheep over here on the other side of the world--sheep! I mean lamb lol

My flatmate first gave me the idea about cooking the new meat. I usually stay away because it's not my favorite back home, but then again I don't really eat it heaps so I am actually finding a taste for it over here since it is so plentiful...and also super cheep. What I bought..only $7 bucks worth of meat, and I still have enough for another meal tomorrow!

I found a good recipe on Epicurious (where else? lol) which was Lamb, rosemary, and artichokes. It ended up being super easy and cooked fast so I will definitely have to remember that one! Ended up being DELICIOUS and somehow my first time cooking it was PERFECT...it ended up being a perfect medium rare :-) I was proud. 

So proud I took some pictures to show you guys! :-) 

White Plate...I'm turning into my father....

Perfect if I do say so Myself :-)

I do have to say the only bad part about this meal was the red wine. The wine is DELICIOUS! however my whole house only gets to be about 10C at its warmest at night, so the wine WAS TOO COLD! :-( 

In other news, I took a tour of Parlament yesterday and watched some of the proceedings after class, since we were already down there. It was all super interesting. I found it funny how informal it all seemed to me. There would be a question posed by a PM (parlament member) to the speaker; but then the person who was going to answer it would stand up immediatly, normally the speaker wouldn't even be able to introduce the person. Also any other PM can pose a supplement question to the initial question (which seem like they can be fairly far off topic but still vaguely connected). Really the questions just turned into lots of yelling at each other, it seemed like a playground argument at some points...but then again how mature are politicians really? I also went on a tour of the government buildings, which left much to be wanted...the tour guide was not amazing. But it was still nice to see inside the buildings. They are all really different, but really amazing architecture. The oldest building is the parliament library, which is the last of the original government building, the original parliament building burnt down in 1905 (I think). Then there is the parliament building, which is a gorgeous georgian building, but half way through the building project the government ran out of money, so never finished the building by leaving off its left wing. So now the left wing of the government buildings is the building known as the beehive (but no bees thank god lol). It is mostly offices and function spaces. 

I am also in the process of planning a weekend winery tour with the flatmates, at least one...I am going to try and coerce the other one lol. So that will be saturday. I think we won't do an organized tour, but tomorrow I was going to go down to a wine store down the street and ask what local wineries they would recommend (since the 2nd primary location for wineries is about 30 minutes outside the city). I am also looking into a 1/2 day adventure north to see some of the world outside of Wellington. so tonight is the study night..better get to it then!

Pictures of parliament here.

Cheers!

~Marjorie 

Questions in the End

Only 19 more days in this intriguing country on the other side of the world... and I don't know how I really feel about it. I can't really say I won't be sad to go...I will, I have started to finally settle in and now I have to go. It's strange to think that I have been here for 4 months, if someone asked I might say I have only been here a few short weeks, because that is all I feel like has passed. Though I do remember the pains of getting here and settling in and getting used to my lectures and the funny ways people talk and write here. And just as I am seeming to get used to everything, I need to leave again. There is still so much I haven't seen and done here...I never did go Zorbing or see any of the North Island. I didn't get to surf off of 90 mile beach, or take the costal railway, or take a tour of wine country. Things that I came here hoping to do, things I couldn't wait to get to when I was on the planes over here. 

And now my time is finally gone...there is no more. I haven't even seen Wellington Zoo! (though I hope to go and see it next weekend...or maybe even on thursday morning...who knows! lol) All I really have time for is finishing up classes and actually studying for finals so that I can get the credits I need back home..so this trip wasn't a total waste lol. 

I came to New Zealand hoping to find a new side of me...to figure out things that perplexed me when I was home. To start a new "life" for a few short months being a "different" person, trying new things and being EVEN more outgoing than I already was, to not question but just to do. And I did, for a little while at least. I explored the South Island on a whim and talked to people I would have never started a conversation with in the states. But then I got comfortable...I slowed down and realized that I was still in school and focused. Not a bad thing, but back to my normal self. I stopped thinking of things I wanted to see and do, and slept in! These things are not bad, but it means I didn't see and do as much as I had hoped, and that saddens me. I wished I had stuck to my original plan of doing something every weekend. But things got away, and classes actually assigned work, and I actually had responsibilities and people didn't want to do the things I had planned on, and I didn't try and do them myself. 

And now with only 19 more days in this wonderful country I wish I had. Though I realize that I probably wouldn't be passing my classes lol which is probably the reason why I settled back into my normal self..and I think its a pretty good one. Of course there were other reasons why I wasn't able to do and see the places I would have like to seen...things got in the way, people were busy or unenthusiastic. So I changed my mind, I did other things, I relaxed...and I think that was helpful too. And necessary. I always get so wrapped up in the stress at school. I thrive on it, I push through because of it...but am I really enjoying myself? I think so, just not in the same way. I have talked about how I have developed the "no worries" attitude of the kiwis. And I think that has changed me for the better as well. I hope that I can hang onto it in the fast paced world of the states and Vermont (yes even VT is a faster pace than Wellington NZ!). 

My final newsletter from Butler came the other day, and in it were some ways to start thinking about the experience and how to start to make the transition home again. One of the suggestions they give is to figure out now what your answer to the "how was NZ" question. To reflect on the experience and see what it has really meant to you. Has it changed an outlook, or inspired something new?

I don't really have an answer to that question yet. Maybe in the coming days I will figure something out. The experience was rewarding, I realized that I am very happy to be going to school in the states for one lol. And I am still glad that I came, but has it changed an outlook or inspired something new? I'm not sure yet. Has it even been the time of my life? I wrote in my journal today that I'm not quite sure if it has or not. Everyone back home has said that it must be or that it obviously has been...but has this been the time of my life? Is the time of my life regretting things that I have not done? I sure hope not. I have made some great friends who I hope to stay in touch with, and have some new memories....but will I look back on this time and say, "yes, that was the time of my life." I'm just not sure. And I sort of feel guilty about this. Should I have worked harder to make it the time of my life? Should I have made sure I did all the things I came here wanting to do? Or was it the right thing to have no worries and just see where the tide takes me? 

All questions to think about in the end.... 

~Marjorie