Day One: Traveling Day

So today was SUPER exhausting.  So this evening, we flew from Chicago to L.A. and then from L.A. to Auckland.  When we arrived, it was 8 am, local time.  Lionel and Alec picked us up to bring us to Rotorua, a small city/large town about three hours southwest of Auckland.  Along the way, we stopped in Matamata for lunch.  Matamata is also Gollum from Lord of the Rings, for all those fans out there.  After that, we went luging, which is incredibly fun and also pretty tough to explain.  See picture. :)  Then, we went out to dinner after dropping our stuff off at the hotel.  We walked about two blocks to Burgerfuel, a fantastic burger joint that still has my mouth watering for a CN Cheese.  Yum!  On the way home, we stopped at Pak N Save, a sort of cross between Sam's Club and Wal-Mart and kind of also Trader Joe's.  Then we returned to the hotel and we showered and CRASHED.  What a day(s).

This is a luge. :) We rode them down a mountain and then 

caught a chairlift back up.

The last 48 hours have been both the most miserable and exhilarating experience of my life.  Yes, miserable.  The flight from O'Hare to LAX was great.  Nishant and Kaitlyn were my students for learning the Rubik's Cube, and then we all played UNO with Arnaud.  However, the flight from LAX to Auckland was a different story.  For starters, it was fifteen hours long, plus a seventeen hour time difference.  What a doozy.  Secondly, I passed out.  Majorly.  I don't mean sleeping, now.  I mean I fell forward and then next thing I knew, Ms. Titus was shaking me awake.  The flight attendants even broke out the massive oxygen tank for me, which was totally embarrassing, but it made me feel waaaay better! :) However, when we went luging, I felt normal again.  That was probably the time of my life right there. :)  (The luging part, that is.)
Probably the biggest culture shock I experienced was, while we were at the grocery store Pak N Save, there were people that were barefoot.  It was surprising because in the States, people wear shoes everywhere.  I also thought it was totally awesome, considering I hate wearing shoes.  If it was widely accepted back home, I wouldn't wear shoes either.  But there's that whole "No shirt, no shoes, no service" thingy.  How inconvenient.  But oh, well.  My initial reaction to that whole thing though was "that's weird."
Tomorrow, I am the most excited about the geothermal village, Whakarewarewa, Whaka for short.  The full name is Te Whakarewarewatanga O Te Ope Taua A Wahiao.  I can pronounce it, too.  I think it will be really cool to see a geothermal village, considering I don't really know what a geothermal village is in the first place.  But I think it will be a really unique experience, considering we don't really have geothermal villages, or really hotsprings in the U.S. at all.  
Well...I'm exhausted.  And I need a shower.  Good night! (Actually, good morning!)

'Nuff said.