On Sunday January 13th I had to say goodbye to my friends and family as I prepared to leave for my big adventure in America. I made sure I was all packed then went out to lunch with my mum, we went to one of the local cafés and I had French toast with maple syrup. We talked about the year ahead and it was nice to be able to just talk.
Afterwards I went home and watched TV until I was able to Skype with my sister. When we did get to Skype it was really sad and it made me sad to see her cry. My dad arrived to take me to the airport while I was still talking to my mum and sister.
After I said goodbye to them I went with my dad and we went into Wellington and went for dinner. I had a really yummy Chicken Korma. We headed off to the airport to check in. As I was checking in my uncle, aunt and cousin showed up and we waited for some friends to show up.
My friends arrived and I had to proceed to the departure gate. I hugged everyone goodbye and went through security. As I boarded my plane I began to feel sad but I knew I couldn't back out after coming this far. With my friends and family watching my plane took off and I was once again on my way to Auckland.
When I landed in Auckland I collected my bag and got the shuttle to the hotel and checked in for the night, went to my room and went to bed. I woke up at around 4:30am, got up and dressed and checked out of the hotel and walked to the International Terminal at Auckland Airport. I checked in for my first flight at 5am and went through security.
My first flight was at 7:35am NZDT (Monday January 14th) was to Sydney, Australia and took about three and a half hours to get there. I had nothing to do on this flight because you have to pay for everything (including the food and water) so I had a little nap. My plane landed in Sydney at 9:10am AEDT (Monday January 14th). I had a stop over there for a few hour and I boarded my next flight which left Sydney at 12:10pm AEDT.
This part of the flight to New York took almost 13hours and we had to stop in Los Angeles so that we could go through immigration and customs. The flight itself felt much longer than it was. I watched Iron Man 2, Captain America: The First Avenger and part of Moulin Rouge. We had two meals on the flight and they were both quite good as well as snacks and refreshments along the way. I managed to get about an hour of sleep. We landed at LAX around 6:30am PST (Monday January 14th) and I had to recheck my bags.
After going through security once again I made my way to the departure gate. We boarded the same plane that we had arrived on then left at 8:45am for New York landing at JFK airport. When I arrived in New York it was 4:45pm EST and about 6°C. I collected my bags and made my way to the AirTrain which would take me to where the hotel shuttles were. I called for the shuttle and then waited for about half an hour for it to arrive.
I was soon at the hotel and in my room. It felt so nice after over 27 hours to have a nice hot shower. I was the first of the New Zealand girls to arrive so I watched TV and went to bed. At about 11:50pm the other kiwi girls arrived and we chatted then went to bed.
I will write about the workshop/orientation in my next post.
