Some of you have probably gotten this email already, if so… I apologize!

I just wanted to inform everyone that I’ve arrived in New Zealand! After 2 years of planning this trip, it’s finally happened. I’m currently in staying in Wellington. Tomorrow is the first official day of field camp, and we’ll head to the South Island. The flight over here was “only” 13 hours long, but actually went by fairly fast now that I think about it. Unfortunately, I was only able to sleep for 4 hours.

We landed in Auckland at 4:45am local time (7:45 Pacific) and then I took a short flight to Wellington and landed here at 8am local time. Since then, I’ve pretty much just been walking around the city and exploring downtown and the wharf. There are a bunch of kayaks out on the bay and I was thinking of renting one.

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The weather here is PERFECT. Not many clouds in the sky, about 74 degrees F with a light breeze. Apparently, Wellington is a sister-city of San Francisco. It makes sense when you look at the geographical context of both cities: excellent natural harbors, built among (and on) lush green hills. Even the people (though most are on holiday this week) are quite friendly and laid back. Oh yes, even the transients have the same charismatic one-liners that their San Francisco counter parts have. “MAN! You’re a lucky punk! Want to trade?” yelled one person to a guy in a car with his attractive girlfriend. One person I talked to mention another uncanny similarity with SF: Very few people in this city are native to Wellington.

And for my Bay Area friends… here is another AMAZING similarity that I randomly found today. Apparently, there is no relation to the SF/Berkeley restaurants.

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I’m also noticing an abundance of Subways (food) places here. Within a 10 minute walk of my hostel, there are 3 of them. Every time I see one now (especially since I’m in a foreign country), I can’t help but laugh at Mitch Hedberg’s joke about how when he offends people overseas, he feels as if the Subway is an American Embassy of sorts. I’ll have to keep that in mind. There is also an abundance of internet cafes within the same radius. I counted 6 on my way up the street.

For those wondering about the time difference… we’re 3 hours behind, but one day ahead. So as I write this, it’s 1:22pm on the 27th here. Back home in California, it’s 4:22pm on the 26th. The other thing that’s going to be crazy to get used to is the fact that they all drive on the wrong side of the road. I really need to remember which way to look. Doesn’t seem like it’d be too bad to get used to, but old habits die hard I suppose.

For Dan: While they drive on the opposite side of the road and the driver’s seat is different from ours, the setup with the clutch is exactly the same. Clutch on the left side. However, the stick shift is on the left side as well. That’d be weird to get used to. (In my unscientific sample earlier this morning, I noticed the majority of cars parked around downtown were stick shift).

It’s weird… I really can’t believe I’m basically on the opposite side of the world. It’s quite crazy. Of course, all I have to do is look at the side of the road people are driving on and I know I’m not dreaming. 😉 The weather itself is so great though. It feels like an awesome San Francisco / Berkeley early summer day. Exactly like it! That alone makes it feel like I never really left California. When we landed in Auckland last night though, I know I had the biggest, cheesiest grin on my face that I actually made it here. Awesome. 🙂

Click here for full size image

Click here for full size image

Tomorrow morning, we take a ferry to the South Island, where we’ll spend the next 3 weeks before returning to Wellington. From there, we’ll spend another 3 weeks on the North Island… and then it will be time to go home.

Here is our itinerary that we received about 2 weeks ago.

(Click below to read)
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My flight leaves at about 7:00PM on Sunday. I’m almost completely packed and ready to go. All my flights and accomodations are booked as well. Nothing to do now but wait. All the roommates are now gone as well, so I’m all by myself at the house for the rest of the weekend (a very rare occurence)!

Since my sister has an inconvienent work schedule this week, she wasn’t able to fly home to visit the family either. Tomorrow, she is going to spend Christmas with a friend’s family who lives near by. They invited me over for dinner tomorrow night as well. That is very nice of them, and is especially thoughtful since I was feeling rather lonely due to the circumstances. It’s going to be my first Christmas / New Years / Birthday away from home! It’s all a part of growing up of course, but there’s something sentimental (and scary) about it being the first time, especially coupled with the fact that this is the first time I’m travelling overseas too.

I’m quite excited and wonder how on Earth I’ll be able to sleep both tomorrow night and on the plane as well. It’s roughly a 16 hour flight there. The longest flight I’ve ever had before are the short one hour hops back and forth between San Francisco and Southern California. Meghan, a veteran of these long trips, bought me an interesting game called Sudoku to help kill time on the flight. I’ve played with it a bit already and it’s quite fun. I’m also bringing along “Life of Pi”, which quite a few people have recommended to me as an excellent book. There’s also the whole (trying to) sleep aspect as well as watching movies. Especially since we know how often I see actual movies anyway. It’ll be like everything is new to me!

Another nice issue is that I found someone to sublet my room for January, courtesy of my friend Julie. A friend of hers is moving back to San Francisco after a short stint in Texas and is looking for a place to stay for a few weeks while she gets settled. It’ll be nice not having to pay for a room that I’m not actually using. Of course it’s almost like moving out, so I’ve been packing up a lot of clothes and other random stuff laying around my room and storing it in boxes. Furniture is thanfully staying though, so she’ll utilize that.

While packing up my room, I was able to fill up two full trash bags of clothes that I dropped off to the Goodwill this week as well. That freed up quite a bit of space. There were also a lot of things I was able to get rid of. For some reason I was apparently collecting rotten old shoes. I tossed out about 5 pairs of completely destroyed shoes that were hiding in the back of my closet.

Among them, were a pair of hiking boots that have been with me through thick and thin. It was almost hard to throw them away, and I wanted to keep them for nothing more than sentimental value (that must be the word of the day). They’ve been with me from the bottom of the Grand Canyon to the top of the Sierras and literally everything in between, plus some (Death Valley, Basin and Range, Salton Sea, Owens Valley, Nevada, Montana, as well as the infamous Caribou Scramble – 2 miles, 2500+ft of elevation gain, 100 switchbacks). I really think that I’ve easily put a brutal 500 miles on the things. They’ve lasted me well over the years… especially for a $40 pair of boots.

Ah well. So long Hi-Tec’s! It’s a shame you won’t be sharing in yet another adventure with me.

In other news… I went to a currency exchange shop downtown earlier this week and pulled out some New Zealand Dollars, so I’m prepared once I get there. I have to say, we in the United States have some of the most boring money in the world. The cash from NZ is quite colorful and interesting to look at. Perhaps that makes you want to spend it less (riiiggghhhht).

“An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” – Mohandas Gandhi

So it’s a little after 2AM and I’ve just returned from San Quentin State Prison. I briefly thought about trying to attend earlier this evening and pushed the thought away as I studied for finals. A few hours later, my friend Peter called, asking if I wanted to go. I decided to check it out and support those against the death penalty. Roughly 1,500 people (the largest crowd to ever gather for an execution at San Quentin) gathered to hold vigil and protest the execution of Stanley Tookie Williams.

Whether he is guilty or innocent, reformed or not, a role model to young troubled children or a forgotten idol is not of importance to me. What’s important to me is the continued hypocritical policy of carrying out state sponsored murder in the name of justice (or injustice).

Who exactly does this benefit? And what is the point? It isn’t a deterrance. Whatever happened to redemption and not revenge? Ugh. I’m too angry/sad/tired to say much more.

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This is going to be a crazy and adventurous blog posting. Be prepared!

An Epic Battle – Man vs. Vending Machine
I learned a nice little secret at school last week (though its actually fairly intuitive). If you want to quick and easy access to the student health office, just show them a lot of blood. I found this out by getting into a fight with a vending machine (and losing). For the second time that day, it STOLE a bag of chips from me. The first time I was able to hit the front of it and my chips fell down. Not so for the second time.

I tried hitting the front of it and the side of it. Finally I climbed on it to try and shake it, only to find that it is bolted to the floor! Evidently, while I was trying to shake it, my pinky finger caught an exposed sharp edge of metal along one of the corners and cut me deep. I didn’t realize it at first. I was scratching my nose, trying to figure out what my next move was, when I noticed out of the corner of my eye that my finger was red. I look down to find a healthy amount of blood oozing out of the cut (only then did it start to hurt of course).

I ran to the bathroom to wash up and ran down to the student health center and showed the people at the front desk. They rushed me to a back room, washed the cut up and patched it with some weird sort of super glue and tape stitches. It left me with a nice deep cut though. Here is a nasty pic of it the next day. 😉 Thankfully, it didn’t get infected at all and is well on its way to healing.

A Bad (But Good) Week!
So as far as academics are concerned, last week was rotten. I’m really not having fun in chemistry, despite the fact that I love all sorts of science. I am just not understanding it and not enjoying it. My lecture grade is going to be less than stellar unfortunately. The final is next week and I’m pretty horribly prepared. That’s what this weekend is for!

As far as the chemistry lab goes, the class can be interesting and I love the people. It’s a great group. Unfortunately I sometimes feel that I have NO CLUE what is going on in the class, despite studying and preparing for quizzes and lab practicals. A lab practical we had last week absolutely destroyed me. I really thought I was doing everything right. Then it came time to test the pH of our solutions, and not a single one matched up with what I calculated! Gah! So that put me in an amazing mood, as I spent the weekend thinking about how I was probably in danger of failing the chemistry lab.

However, I briefly talked to the instructor today and she said I currently have a B+ in the class. I am not sure how I have managed to pull that off (given the grades on the practicals and some of my quizzes), but that has put me in an amazing mood! Now if only my chemistry lecture professor would tell me the same thing (hah!).

Computers Suck
Alright, it’s embarrassing to admit, but my computer got a virus. Yes! I’m crazy vigilant about that crap, but this one was totally my fault. I tried to run some crack to unlock some software that I didn’t pay for (hey! I’m a poor college student…). Unfortunately, it turned out to be a trojan! I watched in horror as 10 icons suddenly popped up on my taskbar. I went to close the install program and run Ad-Aware and the computer locked up!

I figured it was nothing serious and just rebooted. Of course now my computer won’t even boot into Windows! After trying some various things, I just pulled out the original WinXP install disk and ran a repair installation utility. However it locked up in the middle of it and then prevented me from running it again (since the installation was now damaged)!

I pulled out an older hard drive, reformatted it and got everything running. Then I pulled the important documents and such off the old hard drive. So now I’m back in business, but what a waste of two days.

And now for some good news!

New Zealand
My New Zealand trip is now fully paid for! It kind of makes it official now. In less than three weeks, I will be off gallivanting around the countryside. I still need to book a hostel/room for the last three nights I am in New Zealand however. Our field camp ends February 7th and I’m not flying home until February 10th. So I’ll be spending a few extra days in Auckland, New Zealand before I come home. (Though from a few Kiwis I’ve recently spoken with, they find Auckland to be one of the more annoying cities to travel in).

I also received my passport last week as well! Of course I think it might
be the wrong one…

Hah, I kid. I really did get the right passport. For some reason, we have a passport from Iran lying around the house. I need to actually turn that in.

Also, a fellow geology student from SF State is going to the New Zealand field camp as well! She just signed up at the last minute. That’s quite cool, since there seems to be blocks of 2 or 3 people from different schools going. I think the number of people going on this trip is about 13.

As far as gear goes, I think I’m pretty much prepared. There might be a few more things to pick up before I leave, but I’m pretty sure that I’m set. All I have to do now is just hang in there for THREE MORE WEEKS! School is out in two weeks though (finals are next week). So close to being done.

Alright, I’ve finally completed something that I came across last year and thought was quite interesting. It’s called the “Photographic Interview” and was a project that was posted on sh1ft.org.

Anyway, here it is! Enjoy. 🙂

Question 1: Who am I?
Question 2: Who knows Me Best? (My sister)

Question 3: How old am I?

Question4: The most important thing in my life. (My Family)

Question 5: I always carry…

Question 6: Something I always do…

Question 7: I’m happiest when (I’m with my friends and making others laugh)

Question 8: On a Monday morning, you can find me…

Question 9: My favorite mode of transport.

Question 10: My eyes are…

Question 11: My favorite material posession

Question 12: To relax, I like to…

Question 13: The town I live in is…

Question 14: My worst habit

Question 15: My guilty pleasure

Question 16: When I look at someone, the first thing I see is…

Question 17: I think _____ is beautiful. (Sierra Nevada Mountains)

Question 18: One thing I can live without.

Question 19: One thing people don’t know about me. (Punched through a window in 7th grade and have a small scar on my wrist. Ouch!)

Question 20: My life is… (About taking the road less travelled)

I went out on Wednesday night to meet up with an old roommate and some of her friends to a place in Nob Hill. I haven’t seen her in AGES, so that was great. Hanging out with her definitely puts me in such a good mood. It’s crazy. It was good to see her though… we’ll have to throw more cooking parties together.

Anyway, the most interesting part of the night happened on the way home:

I managed to catch the last possible outbound train and I got off the subway at Forest Hill Station. From there it’s roughly a 1.5 mile walk to my house (since the buses were no longer running). About half of that is on a two-lane road that has a sidewalk on only one side. Next to the side walk is a 20 foot tall concrete wall. On the other side of the street is a small lake (but no sidewalk).

I walk out of the subway station and immediately smell a rancid smell that I haven’t smelled in years! It’s a damn skunk! I laugh and feel sorry for the poor soul who was nailed. I start to walk home and hit the beginning of the concrete wall. Up ahead I see a little furball scurring along the sidewalk.

“Hey look! A raccoon! How cute!” I think to myself. But upon closer inspection (and when I got too close, the bastard stood up on his front feet!!!!) I realized that it wasn’t in fact a raccoon. It was a skunk!!!

So I started talking to him and making some noise and he scurried along… towards the FAR end of the wall! Uggghhh! This was going to be a long walk.

Every time a car came, he stopped, since he was scared. And he wouldn’t cross the street (smart move actually), he just stayed on the sidewalk. If I got too close, he would stand on his front legs with his tail in the air… threatening to spray me!

At one point, after a car came, he started running back towards me! I panicked and started yelling at him, clapping my hands and making all sorts of noise. Finally he turned around and continued scurring along.

Eventually (thankfully it only took 15 minutes), we got to the end and he scurried into some bushes, never to be seen again. I was able to continue the last half of the journey home.

Crazy!

David and I decided to go as the video game characters, Mario and Luigi of the Super Mario Brothers! We got quite a few kudos for our costumes. That was awesome. 🙂

Things are starting to get in motion in regards to my 6-week long excursion to New Zealand during winter break for geology field camp. I thought I would go ahead and put together a list of links and just what the heck I am supposed to be doing for my friends and family who aren’t entirely familiar with my plans come Christmas.

Field camp runs from December 28th to February 7th, though it literally takes 2 days to fly there (~18 hours in the air, plus crossing the international date line). So I will end up leaving in the afternoon / evening on Christmas day (not sure if I’m flying out of San Francisco or LAX just yet). I’ll arrive in Auckland (North Island) on the morning of the 27th and take a small commuter flight to Nelson (South Island) where we will begin our trip!

We start our trip off on the South Island and end it 6 weeks later on the North Island in the city of Auckland. The schedule sounds intense… 6 days a week of working, with 1 day off (but all field camps are like this). 3 meals a day are provided for us as well!

We’ll be checking out things such as the Franz Josef Glacier too:

Anyway, I’m getting more excited as December approaches. My passport application has also been sent off and I should receive that the first week of December! This will be my first ever trip abroad and I’m definitely looking forward to it.

I decided to update the list of In N Outs that I’ve been to. Added a few in just 3 months! People seem to be sympathetic to my cause.