AUCKLAND: Day 1

Wow, I honestly find it an intimidating task to attempt to reproduce the events of my arrival and first day here. There is a lot to say—do I have the patience?

Maybe tomorrow.

In the meantime, to put your hungry and curious minds at ease, I will summarize the happenings of the past 24 hours. I drove to Boise and was pulled over by a smug cop with a boyish face and pudgy build, he fined me $90 for speeding, first offense. Damn it, what a way to start a trip, huh? I boarded my first flight, it was good, The second flight was also good. No stories there.

I met a girl named Caroline at the baggage claim, she is from North Carolina and will be staying in Auckland for 5 months as an exchange student. Her luggage was lost. I loaned her a shirt. We brushed our teeth, and proceed through customs. I, apparently, am suspicious and get routed down "Lane 4" for interrogation.

The questions were stupid and the officer was more interested in the craftsmanship of my Tobacco Pipe than he was in the questions. I explained to him the basics of pipe-making and the process with which this particular pipe was made and he let me through, at last, after a 45 minute wait in line with Arabs and other "suspicious" peoples. Caroline was waiting for me beyond the walls and doors of customs and we boarded a shuttle-cab and were taken to her new school campus. Check-in took awhile. We met her roommates, a German, a Hollander, a Kiwi, and a Californian.

Fun, fun, fun.

Driving on the left is a trip, we marveled at on the bus ride into Downtown Auckland.

We spent most of the day complaining about our sweaty clothes, dreaming of showers, and blaming it all on jet-lag, but we had a substantial amount of fun between with clowning and clothing-shopping for shorts, which she needed. It was damn hot.

DAMN HOT.

We ate, talked, hydrated, and ran down a long tall alley. Also we walked, checked out buildings and floors and lawyers offices, rode glass elevators, crossed streets diagonally, and marveled at accents and Asians, all-the-while discussing life and other such subjects. Eventually we located my Hostel, where I dumped my bag.

We then drank beer.

Day 1 was a success.