Position and Hold

All the planning has come to this: my bags are packed, and I leave for Auckland in fewer than 24 hours.

The last week has been a mixture of uncomfortable down-time (my job ran out of things for me to do, so I've only worked for one day over the last two weeks) and rushing around to complete last-minute errands. Unfortunately, I had to replace several items I hadn't counted on. I stupidly sent my beloved iPod shuffle through the wash, and that model isn't made by Apple anymore. I unethusiastically had to upgrade to the newest generation iPod nano, and I still miss my shuffle. An broken or lost iPod is the worst kind of unexpected expense, but it was definitely a necessary one--especially before such a long trip.

Then, a few days ago, the volume gave out on the left earpiece of my equally-beloved Koss Portapro headphones. They're covered by a lifetime warranty, but there's no time to send away for that, and there's no place to buy them in person around here. Another unexpected yet equally necessary fee to replace them with a pair of Sennheisers further cut into my traveling budget.

Electrical equipment failures aside, I've spent most of this last week thinking about New Zealand with a sense of tangibility and concreteness that I had been missing before. I've started to wonder how challenging it will really be to live in NZ, interact with my classmates and floormates socially (What if no one likes me? What if I can't understand anyone? What if they can't understand me?), and the like. Typical pre-trip jitters, and stuff that really shouldn't be bothering me as much as it has, considering that I've already completed two years of school.

Packing was no picnic either. Qantas and Southwest both allow two checked bags, each of which can be no more than 50 lbs. They give you one carry-on item as well, but Qantas stipulates that it can be no heavier than 7 kilos (15 pounds). After a lot of rearranging and frustration, I've ended up condensing my life for the next 4.5 months into one 25" checked bag weighing 40 lbs and my carry-on backpack weighing 12 lbs. I wish I could have done better than that, but I'm only going to know what I didn't need to bring after I arrive. On my next international trip, whenever that may be, I hope to lighten my load by at least five pounds.

With everything packed, copies made of my passport and visa, and my parents ready to let me go, I'm ready to stop thinking about my trip and start living it. New Zealand, here we go.

Talk to you from Auckland.

Mike

(By the way, if anyone wants to Skype me at any time, my Skype username is itsmikewittman)