And another New Island

You are here.
Where is here? It s Auckland!

Since I arrived here, I haven't really been taking any worthy photos, so that will have to wait.
On the bright side, since I'm supposed to stay long enough to at least take a few, you might get some before I leave.. :o)

So I got here on Tuesday morning December the 1st.
On the way I realized I had skipped an entire day in my life because of the time change: never in my life will I have lived the 30th November 2009, even if I go back. Funny, huh?
(On that subject, I was thinking maybe I ought to capitalize and fly back on my birthday so I would have two this year, to make up on how shitty last year's was :o) )

So.... for some mysterious reason I yet have to unravel, the longest hours I seem to have spent recently were in the company of very charming US customs officers.
Because oh, yes, the journey over here was rendered all the more spicy and exciting as a border officer decided I might have done something wrong, and decided to detain me for a couple of hours, just long enough to miss my first connection. Sweet.

http://www.itintl.com/us-customs-and-border-protection-vows-a-total-commitment-to-professionalism.html

Read it if you have time, but I'll only say this:

This, particularly:

“Pledge to Travelers” will be prominently displayed at airports, seaports, and land border ports of entry. It states, “We pledge to cordially greet and welcome you to the United States. We pledge to treat you with courtesy, dignity, and respect. We pledge to explain the CBP process to you. We pledge to have a supervisor listen to your comments. We pledge to accept and respond to your comments in written, verbal, or electronic form. We pledge to provide reasonable assistance due to delay or disability.”

is UTTER bullshit. As proved when we went to the border with Julien, as proved when I went this time.

Because I was getting worried (having only 15 minutes left before my flight) and wished to know what was going to happen if I missed my flight to LA, but more importantly the connection therefrom to New Zealand, which is rather costly, to say the least), I tiptoed to the counter to ask very politely whether my fl... "TAKE A SEAT!!!!!!", was the answer I got from the desk dragon, (then, she turned, and addressing the about 30 people of various nationalities, most of them not familiar with English and with different yet very real levels of stress) "THE NEXT PERSON WHO COMES TO ASK ABOUT THEIR FLIGHT WILL GET THE SAME ANSWER!!! JUST SO YOU KNOW, THE MORE TIME WE SPEND ANSWERING YOUR QUESTIONS, THE LESS TIME WE HAVE TO ACTUALLY DEAL WITH YOUR CASE" (etc)

Well, if that's the face of a welcoming nation, I'll be damned.
The real trouble with that, is it kind of deters anyone from wanting to actually go to the US, which is a shame, because it has so many great things about it.
I'd love to go back some day, but frankly, I dunno if I can be asked to be categorized as a terrorist every time.
Oh yeah, because also, as I found out, contrary to what our little border officer in Vermont had said in October, it does appear on my record that I was REFUSED an entry to the US, as opposed to what he had said, that is, that we withdrew our application. (for more details on the subject, just ask me)
Anyway, enough about that.

Luckily, Air Canada managed to find another flight for me, and after getting it and legging it through LA airport with only 40 minutes to find out whether I had to collect my luggage and where my next flight was (3 terminals away) I made it!! :o) Very sweatily, but I made it. My luggage decided to stay in LA for an extra 2 nights though, but that's another story, morning glory.. :P

Anyway, lo and behold, I did get here in the end, luggageless for two and a half days, but happy!
Have to add, my first time in a boeing (boing!) was really cool.. 3 seats to myself (and Tiger), rock on.. these things are really incredible. At the lowest, they can sit 412 people, tha'ts crazy, it's kind of as overwhelming as going into a cathedral.. in fact, I'm just thinking now, it would be terribly cool, to have an air-concert in a boeing, maybe with a symphonic orchestra? That would soooooooooo totally rock!! .. probably been done anyway, but well..

So yeah, Auckland, woopee. The welcome at the airport by a very welcoming female maori officer was extremely nice and smiley, no horrible questions that make one sweat and just a warm "Welcome to New Zealand, hope you have a great time"
Yoohoo, humans!!!

I had a few hours to hang around town before meeting my CS host Anna (awesome lady who does swordfighting and chainmail apart from anything else)

I can't really say much about NZ so far, of course. I haven't had time to digest anything yet but I can give you my overall first impression:

First impression when coming out of the airport:
it smells of flowers!!! It smells like the tropics!! Woohoo!
There is luxurious vegetation everywhere, including in town.. palm trees, mysterious conifers, and flowers flowers flowers, hibiscus, jasmine, honeysuckle, it smells gorgeous all over the place!! :o)

Second impression:
England meets the tropics.
Architecturally speaking the houses have a lot of British elements, of course, bay windows, the facades in places, the quaintness of the rockeries in the gardens, all with a definite colonial slash tropical air. (for all I know) Very cute. And photos will follow.

And to conclude, I'd say a place where people walk around barefoot all the time is definitely a sound place!

Tuesday a few hours after arrival I went to check out a local capoeira group, it's capoeira Angola.
I really liked it, it's very different from what I had seen and experienced so far..
This week-end we are going here
http://www.capoeira.org.nz/index.php?pageID=4
Looks like fun..

So yeah, that's all for now, catchya later
:o)