Well!
Dear Reader,
Per usual, my blog posting has fallen a bit behind, or potentially just temporarily by the wayside. I'm back! Providing that my internet connectivity remains (and, let's be clear, this is a BIG "if"), I should be back to blogging as usual. My internet here (and where is here, you are wondering?) seems to only like Downton Abbey and EMS online continuing education classes...and given that this blog fits neither under the category of post-Victorian television drama nor that of emergency airway management, we'll see if the internet gods decide to cooperate. Hopefully, I'll be blogging better than usual, since usual is not so usual and my time in New Zealand only saw me post 3 entries. Shameful, really.
Between the last time I posted and this time, many things have happened and many timezones have been crossed. Perhaps I'll do flashback entries at some point to cover the things that I missed in more detail, but in brief, I finished my studies at Auckland Uni and set out adventuring. These adventures took me first to Christchurch, which boasted very kind hostel owners, a very nice hostel, and a Pak n' Save with as many gummy bears as an Alice Morrison could dream of, but was otherwise something of a post-apocalyptic industrial hellhole, in my humble opinion (and the opinions of many people who visit....and who live there...but most of them have moved. Awkward).
After departing said industrialized locale in one very overstuffed 7 person van-with-no-trunk, complete with 7 people and 7 GIANT backpacks (really it just looked like 2 people were in the front seat, since no one else was actually visible under the luggage), myself, and the clown car in which I traveled, made its way to Boyle Village, where we commenced a 6 day trip called the St James Walkway. It was stunningly beautiful and quite an adventure, and I think we all had way too much fun ;) We also potentially got a myriad of diseases from the sandflies that kept biting us, and might have gone slightly insane, but this is very much not the point. Screaming incoherently at sandflies in a 90 degree cabin is just a part of any good camping experience. But truly, the experience was a wonderful one and I am so grateful to have been given the opportunity and the good health to go when I did, with the people I did. So thank you to all who made that possible.
A quick jaunt back to Christchurch allowed me to fly to Sydney the next day, where I got a chance to meet up with two friends, and saw one of only 7 Baha'i temples in the world. What a fantastic day on every level! That wonderful day culminated in another flight from Sydney to Melbourne, where I spent a week with my aunt and two cousins. It was a luxurious week in many ways, and allowed me some much needed R&R. It also gave me the chance to form some new memories with family that I hadn't seen in 10 years, and for that I am so grateful. Thank you to Susan, Matt, Chloe, Ian, Carolyne and Al (Booth) for hosting me and showing me a wonderful time down under.
To continue this tale, I must introduce my resident alter-ego, the traveling maniac, who will give a special presentation on...
How to get from Melbourne, Australia to Salmiya, Kuwait in 5 days or less:
Step 1: Fly from Melbourne to Auckland. Meet up with delightful host family for 30 minutes in airport to say goodbye. Run into the Igoe family (my professor and his family) yet again. Remain unsurprised and still wanting to be friends with Gladness (my professor's wife).
Step 2: Fly from Auckland to San Francisco. Sit next to a guy who used to be on the Australian rugby team on one side, and a crazy lady who tries to feed you her vegetarian breakfast sausage on the other. Get no sleep and curse under your breath for having put the Benadryl in the checked luggage.
Step 3: In 36 hours, do frenzied amounts of laundry, see a few friends, convince your parents that you really are coming back to the North American continent for longer than a day at some point, but that that time is not now. I really do love you, Mom and Dad, and I'm coming back in June, I promise. Sleep....a little.
Step 4: Get on a plane to NYC. Decide, stupidly, to take a supershuttle to your sister's apartment. Get there 2 hours late. NEVER AGAIN, SUPERSHUTTLE. See two more friends, your sister, her friend, and her cats Barney and Marshall (clearly named after the How I Met Your Mother characters). Cambria, I'm so happy I got to spend that day with you and I can't wait to see you again in June! (And, if your sister is as cool as mine and works in the fashion industry, she might even give you much of a new wardrobe while you are there ;) )
Step 5: Get on a plane to London. Get to London. Attempt, and fail, to get to your gate because the security area that your gate is in is closed for the night. Try again. Keep trying. Ask someone and have them tell you to try what you already tried. Try again. Then do something completely illogical and have it work, and get, finally, to your gate.
Step 6: Get on a plane to Kuwait City. Realize you are getting closer to Baghdad than you ever thought you would when you wake up and realize you are flying directly over the top of it. Long to go to Iran from a distance - but not actually that much of a distance. Realize, when flying over the gulf (NOT the Persian Gulf, and NOT the Arabian Gulf, just....the gulf), that Kuwait is mostly comprised of desert, because when you look down, you see a city/developed coastline, some suburbs a bit inland, and then....nothing. No things. Not one. Just sand, and probably the occasional camel.
Tah-dah! You've made it to Kuwait from Australia in 5 days or less. This concludes this portion of your tour.
Well thanks, resident traveling maniac. It's been a pleasure hearing from you. I look forward to seeing you again in June...sort of.
So.....
Now I'm here, in Kuwait! I've been here a bit over a week and I have LOTS to report, but that's going in a different blog post. There's your recap!
A warm, and somewhat sandy, hello from Kuwait.
~Maggie
(Here is a lovely picture, not taken by me, of a little gazebo along the waterfront about a 5 minute walk from where I live)
Dear Reader,
Per usual, my blog posting has fallen a bit behind, or potentially just temporarily by the wayside. I'm back! Providing that my internet connectivity remains (and, let's be clear, this is a BIG "if"), I should be back to blogging as usual. My internet here (and where is here, you are wondering?) seems to only like Downton Abbey and EMS online continuing education classes...and given that this blog fits neither under the category of post-Victorian television drama nor that of emergency airway management, we'll see if the internet gods decide to cooperate. Hopefully, I'll be blogging better than usual, since usual is not so usual and my time in New Zealand only saw me post 3 entries. Shameful, really.
Between the last time I posted and this time, many things have happened and many timezones have been crossed. Perhaps I'll do flashback entries at some point to cover the things that I missed in more detail, but in brief, I finished my studies at Auckland Uni and set out adventuring. These adventures took me first to Christchurch, which boasted very kind hostel owners, a very nice hostel, and a Pak n' Save with as many gummy bears as an Alice Morrison could dream of, but was otherwise something of a post-apocalyptic industrial hellhole, in my humble opinion (and the opinions of many people who visit....and who live there...but most of them have moved. Awkward).
After departing said industrialized locale in one very overstuffed 7 person van-with-no-trunk, complete with 7 people and 7 GIANT backpacks (really it just looked like 2 people were in the front seat, since no one else was actually visible under the luggage), myself, and the clown car in which I traveled, made its way to Boyle Village, where we commenced a 6 day trip called the St James Walkway. It was stunningly beautiful and quite an adventure, and I think we all had way too much fun ;) We also potentially got a myriad of diseases from the sandflies that kept biting us, and might have gone slightly insane, but this is very much not the point. Screaming incoherently at sandflies in a 90 degree cabin is just a part of any good camping experience. But truly, the experience was a wonderful one and I am so grateful to have been given the opportunity and the good health to go when I did, with the people I did. So thank you to all who made that possible.
A quick jaunt back to Christchurch allowed me to fly to Sydney the next day, where I got a chance to meet up with two friends, and saw one of only 7 Baha'i temples in the world. What a fantastic day on every level! That wonderful day culminated in another flight from Sydney to Melbourne, where I spent a week with my aunt and two cousins. It was a luxurious week in many ways, and allowed me some much needed R&R. It also gave me the chance to form some new memories with family that I hadn't seen in 10 years, and for that I am so grateful. Thank you to Susan, Matt, Chloe, Ian, Carolyne and Al (Booth) for hosting me and showing me a wonderful time down under.
To continue this tale, I must introduce my resident alter-ego, the traveling maniac, who will give a special presentation on...
How to get from Melbourne, Australia to Salmiya, Kuwait in 5 days or less:
Step 1: Fly from Melbourne to Auckland. Meet up with delightful host family for 30 minutes in airport to say goodbye. Run into the Igoe family (my professor and his family) yet again. Remain unsurprised and still wanting to be friends with Gladness (my professor's wife).
Step 2: Fly from Auckland to San Francisco. Sit next to a guy who used to be on the Australian rugby team on one side, and a crazy lady who tries to feed you her vegetarian breakfast sausage on the other. Get no sleep and curse under your breath for having put the Benadryl in the checked luggage.
Step 3: In 36 hours, do frenzied amounts of laundry, see a few friends, convince your parents that you really are coming back to the North American continent for longer than a day at some point, but that that time is not now. I really do love you, Mom and Dad, and I'm coming back in June, I promise. Sleep....a little.
Step 4: Get on a plane to NYC. Decide, stupidly, to take a supershuttle to your sister's apartment. Get there 2 hours late. NEVER AGAIN, SUPERSHUTTLE. See two more friends, your sister, her friend, and her cats Barney and Marshall (clearly named after the How I Met Your Mother characters). Cambria, I'm so happy I got to spend that day with you and I can't wait to see you again in June! (And, if your sister is as cool as mine and works in the fashion industry, she might even give you much of a new wardrobe while you are there ;) )
Step 5: Get on a plane to London. Get to London. Attempt, and fail, to get to your gate because the security area that your gate is in is closed for the night. Try again. Keep trying. Ask someone and have them tell you to try what you already tried. Try again. Then do something completely illogical and have it work, and get, finally, to your gate.
Step 6: Get on a plane to Kuwait City. Realize you are getting closer to Baghdad than you ever thought you would when you wake up and realize you are flying directly over the top of it. Long to go to Iran from a distance - but not actually that much of a distance. Realize, when flying over the gulf (NOT the Persian Gulf, and NOT the Arabian Gulf, just....the gulf), that Kuwait is mostly comprised of desert, because when you look down, you see a city/developed coastline, some suburbs a bit inland, and then....nothing. No things. Not one. Just sand, and probably the occasional camel.
Tah-dah! You've made it to Kuwait from Australia in 5 days or less. This concludes this portion of your tour.
Well thanks, resident traveling maniac. It's been a pleasure hearing from you. I look forward to seeing you again in June...sort of.
So.....
Now I'm here, in Kuwait! I've been here a bit over a week and I have LOTS to report, but that's going in a different blog post. There's your recap!
A warm, and somewhat sandy, hello from Kuwait.
~Maggie
(Here is a lovely picture, not taken by me, of a little gazebo along the waterfront about a 5 minute walk from where I live)
