I'm here! (Copied and pasted)

19/2/08. 21:51.
I’m here! And in bed. Lying down. I’m pooped! But it’s been a fun day
Still gotta get the wireless set up so I’m just writing in a word file right now…I’ll transfer it later.

Anyway…..I’ll start at the beginning.

My first flight was out of Cincinnati around 5:00, on the plane I watched Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 and also Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Unfortunately, I missed about the last 5-10 minutes or so of Nick and Norah’s @_@ The plane landed and thus inflight entertainment was shut off.

Landed in LAX, was confused as to where to go. Ended up having to recheck into Qantas in the next terminal over. When I got to the counter they were like omg you have to run! Don’t stop for anything! Went through security where the people were so kind and funny (a welcome change!). The man liked my shirt (My Good Grief Charlie Brown Shirt) and he asked me about it. He also thanked me for being “congenial” because he said most people coming through were so rude, etc. So after that I basically ran and of course my gate had to be the last one. I didn’t have a seat so they were paging me, and apparently had been paging me for a while. Got my seat. Then, they paged me again with a different seat. There was confusion all around, and they ended up giving me a third seat.

Got on the plan, la dee da, everything was normal. Then I got up to go to the bathroom, and as I was waiting I got really light-headed like I was gonna faint, but I was like, no, please don’t faint. I could feel my hearing going and my hands going numb…

I felt bad for the person that was sitting next to me, I had the aisle seat and I guess she didn’t wanna be rude and ask me to get up, so everytime I got up she did. It kind of worked out for the better. Because as I was waiting for the bathroom and she was standing behind me, she noticed that I looked funny….she sat me down. Which is good because it was probably at about that moment that I would’ve fallen over anyway.

Luckily, this was at the back of the plane so it didn’t cause too much of a commotion. A few flight attendants came over, they asked me if I wanted any oxygen, and I was like, uhhhh, but then they said it would be good so I said sure. They made me lay down in the aisle with an oxygen mask and my legs elevated on a seat. A woman passenger came over and said she was a nurse, her husband had walked by and told her there was a person on the floor and she came over. The flight attendant was telling me to close my eyes if I wanted to, the nurse said it would make me dizzy. They gave me water and orange juice; my hands were still tingly but my head was fine. I felt a bit weakened, but fine overall. I ended up moving to business class and they took my bags up for me. Business class was amazing! I’ve never ridden in a plane up front like that before, only economy class. The lighting was nice…colored, and you could recline the seat to the point where you basically were lying down. The screens were bigger and everything. I had been watching Rachel Getting Married back in my old seat…I’ll have to find out the ending sometime later.

Ok. Then after the plane landed, the flight attendant who first saw me said he’d arrange for a wheelchair, and the nurse told me to get off the plane last to avoid the crowd, cuz it could bring back a fainting feeling. So I waited. Got on a wheelchair. They wheeled me through customs, a lady got my bags. I felt so embarassed! And it was nice to skip the line for customs…but I also felt like I was cheating cuz I should’ve been in line too.

So got past customs, got past baggage claim, found the man with the “IES” sign and there were about 10 other kids there waiting. It was about 7:00 and we were waiting on a few more people so we all went outside because nobody wanted to be in the airport anymore.

Got driven to our residences and had a few hours to rest before being picked up again for some orientation activities.

Gael and others talked to us about the university and being abroad, got a mini-tour, and had a nice dinner. When I got home Bettina was here and we went to St. Luke’s mall to get a few things and pick up Anneke. Her store is really nice! I’m sure I’ll pick up a few things while I’m here.

So tired! In for a long weeked. Two-day IES orientation filled with activities sure to wear us all out. Good thing we’ll have Sunday to recover!

22/2/2009 07:37.

I woke up about 45 minutes ago after sleeping for nearly 13 hours. Goodness!
We got back yesterday after our two-day orientation at the Omaha Marae about 5 something got back, I took a shower, laid down to take a nap which I figured might be a few hours…I woke up sometime thinking it was about 10:00PM or something, then looked at my phone which said 02:19. Needless to say I was thoroughly confused and it took me a few seconds to realize it was indeed 2:19 in the morning. It was a bit frustrating because I thought my sleep schedule would be all messed up, but then instead of getting up and doing something, I stayed in bed and slept a few more hours. Haha my sleeping schedule will soon be regular. Besides, hopefully I can get into a routine where I’m in bed early, up early. I like being up early.

But anyway, the last two days have been great! Got picked up at 8 something, got driven to Wellesley apartments and we all drove off to the Marae. It had been raining for the whole night and didn’t let up for the whole day. After an hour drive (through twisty roads that reminded me of the drive to Baguio, good thing I didn’t get too carsick) we got there, wondering what we were gonna do. On the schedule we had kayaking, scuba diving, and hiking on the list, but those were tossed to the side (temporarily) because of the rain and wind.

The first day was really a step into Maori culture. We all gathered under a sort of shelter as we waited to be welcomed into the Marae. There was sort of a call and reponse, and we followed Bianca as she led us into the Marae. We had to take our shoes off before entering (really important) and proceeded in on the left side. We paid our respects to their ancestors, whose pictures lined the back wall, then sat down as a man (not sure of his title) greeted us. Then we all got in a line and touched foreheads/noses with him and his wife, the significance of the nose being where you took your first breath. The nose and mouth are really important to them for this reason.

We set up the mattresses all in the Marae, all 30 of us plus the people who hosted us for the weekend. It felt like Girl Scouts all over again, or the biggest slumber party I’d ever been to. Then we all took a minute or so and went around the room telling everyone a bit about ourselves. The rest of the day was a combination of eating and learning a Haka. Very cool, also very sacred.

Since the initial plans were held off, they were kind of playing it by ear for the weekend, and since it was still raining the end of the first day, she gave us the option of just chilling in the Marae, going out to a bar with live music, and going to a bar without music. It was basically unanimous to go to the bar with music. We all wanted to get out!

Fortunately the next day was beautiful and we got to go kayaking, fishing, and did flax weaving in rotation with three groups. I was so bad at kayaking but it was fun! It also took me a while to get a grasp on flax weaving, though I eventually got into a rhythm and I’d love to make something else. But overall, the scenery was so beautiful (now that the sun was out and the fog was gone) and we could see for miles.