In the Airport

I typed this at 5am this morning in MS word because I didn't have internet access. Since I'm in LA now for like 11 more hours I decided to buy a $10 one day pass for wi-fi access. Anyway... here's what I wrote earlier this morning:


This will be the first real entry for my travel blog. I drove to the Chicago suburbs last night with Mom and Dad and we ate and went to the mall for awhile. I went to sleep around ten and got up and 3am this morning. We left the hotel and headed to the airport. It’s just past 5am now and I’m sitting at my gate waiting to board the plane to Los Angeles.


I was a little more nervous than I expected- this morning I felt like I was waking up for a speech tournament like in high school. I said goodbye to Mom and Dad and now the excitement is starting to take hold. I think the hardest part of leaving was just all the waiting around and slow process of getting underway. Although I guess I have plenty of waiting left to do- I have about 14 hours of sitting in LA before I can board the plane to Auckland. And then I have that 16 hour plane ride after that. Joy. This first plane, however, is the first step and I feel more relaxed knowing that I’m officially on the first leg of my journey. It’s going to be a weird two days only spent in airplanes and airports. I think I’ll officially be in Thursday for less than 24 hours, and that will be entirely on the trip to Auckland. With the time difference, I should arrive at 6am on Friday in New Zealand. Awesome.

The first post

Well, it's June 20: 7 days before I fly to New Zealand... getting all excited and whatnot. I'm starting off my blog now so it's all up and going once I get there. There is still a lot to do before I leave- I have a ton of packing left. I dug out my hiking boots today and put some water resistant leather protector on them as well as on my jacket, and laptop and camera bags. Wow. That's exciting. Basically this post is just to get the blog up and going... so I expect further legitimate entries to me more entertaining. Word.