It is hard to believe that I will start my trip to NZ a week from today. Although I am still a little anxious, I am so extremely excited. I have been in touch with several of my flatmates, who all seem very nice. Touching base with them really eased my nervousness and helped me get excited. I will be living with five others -- Tara from Canada, Andrew from Scotland, Matthias from Germany, Jeremy from the U.S., and Kate from New Zealand. Matthias just arrived a few days ago and said the weather was beautiful, but advised me not to forget my "sunscream". This should be fun, haha.

Warning: The rest of the entry shares a lot of minute details that many may not care to know about. I will not take offense if you have more important things to do than read about my flight details, living arrangements, etc.

Several folks have been asking about my schedule and when I leave, etc. for the next couple of weeks. My dad is flying out to LA with me (thanks to frequent flyer miles!) at 5:30AM on Tuesday. We'll then explore LA and have some good father-daughter bonding time before he heads back to Lynchburg on Thursday, the 11th. I'll fly with my group flight to Auckland, NZ around 7:30 PM that night. For those that don't know, New Zealand has two "parts" (for lack of a better word), North Island and South Island. My program orientation will take place in Auckland for a few days, which is in the northern part of the North Island. I think this will be really fun, as we will be kayaking, camping, etc. We will then fly to Christchurch in the South Island, then to Dunedin, which is my final destination and where I will be for the duration. I will get into Dunedin on February 16th, around 5:30 PM, New Zealand time. New Zealand is 18 hours ahead of the U.S., so add six hours and change the time of day and you've got it!

I will be attending the University of Otago, which is located in Dunedin, South Island. I've been told that it's a great college town with lots of things to do, including beach and mountains within about 10 minutes of each other, I believe. Of course, I will have a better idea of such things when I actually arrive...if I ever actually arrive, haha. I creepily google-mapped my flat and the University and saw exactly where I will be, which was really neat. I even ran right into a Starbucks! It's amazing what you can do with technology.

Sorry I don't have more exciting things to post -- hopefully that will change soon :)

XOXO.