Some Stuff that I've learned so far

They’re called rubbish bins, not trash cans

Most of the taller buildings are build on springs and foam due to the earthquakes, when you’re on the upper floors you can feel it swaying in the wind.

The sky is a bit of a darker blue, slight but noticeable; the sun is also a lot more intense when it is out. I think they’re both attributed to that hole in the ozone layer, definitely need to remember to wear sun block.

They’ve recently streamlined their currency, so most of the old coins that Mr. Nowland gave me to bring over are obsolete. Also the bills are made of plastic, so they don’t disintegrate in the wash, this also means that they are very slippery to handle.

People are a lot more trusting in New Zealand. Most people don’t lock their houses or cars (I have yet to even see a lock installed in a car). My host family did lock their house, but the lock is exceedingly simple, you could probably pick it with a paper clip if you forgot your key.

I have yet to prove or disprove the myth about the toilets flushing in the opposite direction. I clocked multiple toilets at home swirling counter clockwise, but all the toilets I’ve encountered here seem to flush straight down. The drain in the sink did swirl clockwise though, so prospects look promising.

First day that I'm not running around like an idiot.

I finally got around to shaving this morning… it feels glorious.
Met with the international dean at Hutt Valley High School today. He set me up with my courses. I’m going into school tomorrow. They don’t have first period on Friday’s, so school starts at 10:00. I also have a study hall at the end of the day, so I get to leave early. Also after second period there is an “interval” which is just a break for I don’t know how long. Then after fourth period is lunch, and I can pretty much leave after that because of my study period, five periods in total, and no first or last periods on Friday, I can definitely get used to this. I’m taking Music (piano), year 13 English, Art Design (computer/graphic arts), New Zealand Geography and culture, and Electronics. Geography and Electronics switch off every other day, so I still have room for a study hall, which is not placed anywhere to my knowledge, so it’s just a period to wander about.
I met up with a couple other exchange students at the school. To my knowledge there is only one other exchange student from the US. She’s from California, and she is very loud and kind of obnoxious, though nice enough. A different exchange student, Polynesian I think, showed me around to where all my different classes were. The school is pretty big and has multiple buildings on its campus, so this little tour was helpful. I also bought my uniform and set myself up with a cell phone, so even though I don’t really have anyone to call without racking up ridiculous fees, I at least have an alarm clock.

So, here I am, finally arrived in New Zealand, and for the first time in what seems like a millennia, I have internet access.
I’ll start at the beginning…
Two day’s before I leave for New Zealand, I found out some bad news. The temporary host mother that I was going to go to for the first few weeks of my trip until they found me a permanent family; her mother died. So now the plan was for me to stay with a temporary, temporary host family for a couple of days until my original temporary host family got through with all the funeral arrangements and stuff.
I left the Philadelphia airport early, and slept most of the way over. After landing at LAX I ended up waiting an hour and a half for the shuttle to the Hacienda hotel (it’s a very nice looking hotel) and after two calls to the front desk, one finally came. I just had time to take a shower before my room phone rang with the LA AFS coordinator (Jack) calling to see if I was in. I met him for lunch, and we went over a lot of the exact same stuff we had gone over in every other pre-departure orientation. Due to the unfortunate circumstances of not having a family on time and leaving late, I was the only one there.
Apparently we were supposed to do a lot of fun, cultural learning, ice breaker type activities, but as I was the only one there, Jack decided the fill the time with his incessant rambling. Jack was a nice guy, he was helpful and kind and we actually shared some interests, but so help me god, this man did not know when to shut up. I believe I gained more useless, superfluous information in the day that I was in LA than I would have spending a week typing in random Hollywood-type phrases into Google and hitting “I’m feeling lucky.”
The next morning Jack dropped me off at LAX and, finally free of his vocal clutches, I made my way to gate 26 to wait for the next two hours for my flight to board. The flight that followed was like nothing I have ever experienced before, it was ~only~ eleven hours in total, but that is still by far the longest flight I have ever taken. It certainly didn’t help that the entertainment system they had was running on a very unstable installation of Windows 98, and they had to reboot it every hour or so, wouldn’t have been quite as bad if it didn’t take twenty minutes to fire up after a reboot, or if I hadn’t had a completely unexplained case of gas most of the way.
I met two other exchange students from Costa Rica at the Airport in Auckland. I must have waited three hours at the airport for a man named Cliff to show up with my ticket, by time he did, I was nearly late for my flight, and just barely made it in time. One hour later, I had finally arrived in Wellington, and had sworn to myself never to fly again. I’m thinking I might swim back in January.
Already I’ve met some very nice people. An intern from Germany showed me around the city a little. We went out to the waterfront and sat on the edge of the dock, there were no railings. I had to explain why I was so amazed by this; turns out people don’t sue each other for fun over here like they do in America, so people aren’t nearly as concerned with protecting stupid/clumsy people from themselves. Also tap water tastes like bottled water, people trust each other enough that nobody really locks anything, everyone seems to be generally friendly (even complete strangers), and in the harbor, pushing right up to the edge of the city, apparently some of the dirtiest water around, I could still see all the way to the bottom and see little fish swimming around, get that, living things in a body of water, who would have thought.
Any way, I’m typing this all in the Wellington headquarters of AFS New Zealand, so I have yet to begin the crazed juggling act that is going to be my host family. You’ll also have to forgive any bad grammar because I haven’t actually slept properly in I think two (technically three because of the whole, crossing the International Date Line thing) so my brain is a little fried. Also, because of security and having to keep my razor in my checked luggage, I haven’t shaved in at least that long, if not longer, so my face is more than a tad itchy. I’ve also just discovered that the computers here let me spell grey the English way without making a fuss, I love it here.

Pictures will come later.