There and Back Again

Hello friends,

I've been home for a week now, so I suppose that it is time to wrap this puppy up. I arrived swine-flu free back to the South Island, after a much more roller-coaster like ferry ride and a very long, drawn out train ride. I managed to walk in to Sue and Gordon's house just in time for dinner, which was, as usual, fantastic.

The next day was spent doing laundry, uploading photos, and packing. I am wowed at how much stuff I acquired during my brief time away. It also reminded me of how much stuff I have in general. I am presently spending my time working on that, by the way. If any of you need stuff, let me know, and stuff you shall receive.

Finally, my last day in Christchurch arrived. I walked to good ol' UCANT to pick up books that I had loaned professors and take my last sniff of butter chicken from Spice Traders. I made it back just as Gordon arrived to take me to the airport. And so the longest day of my life, literally, began.

It was just an hour up to Auckland, but we had to wait there for several hours before our plane left from the same terminal that we had arrived from. It struck me as being very appropriate that when we first arrived in Auckland, we watched the sun rise and chattered I'm sure much to the chagrin of our fellow travelers, "Look! I'm _____ IN NEW ZEALAND" that on this long day, we watched the sun set on Auckland and instead almost mournfully whispered things like, "Guys, this is the last time I'm ___________ in New Zealand," granted, we were all pretty jazzed to get back to the States, too.

All in all, the flight was long, customs is much more slack coming into the US than it is going into NZ or Aus, but security is much tighter. We had forgotten that and looked like total dweebs--"Oh, we have to take our shoes off?" "Wait, why do I have to take off my big baggy sweatshirt?" "What do you mean I have to dump my water!" Also, nobody working stateside in an airport ever smiled. Not even at customs, where there was a few big posters pledging that the workers would welcome us to the US. My worker grunted at me and it took me forever to figure out that he wanted my passport. At first I thought he was going in for an awkward handshake. Crabby old coot.

It turns out the United States went on without us--people still stomp around, frown and avoid polite eye contact, and LA is still the filthy sphinctor of this great nation. I have missed it.

I left Christchurch at about 4 pm on Monday and touched down in Chicago at 12:05 Tuesday morning. After a joyful reunion with my mom, we headed north and rolled into my driveway at 4:30am Tuesday morning. Hot dawg, it's good to be back.

I have enjoyed blogging. Keep your eyes peeled for what I come up with as my next big blog-worthy adventure.