Leaving Auckland, Part Two: On the Freaking Plane

Leaving Auckland, Part two: the flight

-I wrote several hundred words here last night and was about to upload it with pictures when my battery died :( I lost it all. But never mind! I have some time to write this morning and I'll put up some photos too.)

To briefly recapitulate from yesterday:

Got to airport early

-Found out it wasn’t that early

-Made it through security with this lovely lady who deduced that I was not dosed in explosives

Met John Airport Staff Davies

-Got on plane.

As I already briefly mentioned, I was seated between two other girls, one of whom had a Vancouverite accent (the other did not, though it was some time before I found this out). During take-off the pilot announced that we were going to Los Angeles and caused a minor panic.

After we all settled down and the plane got into the part of the flight which is no longer that exciting, I decided I would watch something because I didn't want to ask the girl next to me to get up so I could get my book already. I eventually watched an episode of The Big Bang Theory after several minutes of struggling with the damn remote, first trying to get it out of the armrest and then trying to actually use it. Seriously when I was pointing the thing right at the screen and nothing seemed to be happening I thought the girl next to me must be thinking she was sitting next to the only clinical idiot aboard, but she was very nice about helping me. This was my first experience with the world-famous Canadian Niceness.

I marvelled for a while at the excellent range of films available, then chose The Source Code. I didn't like it. I was pretty sure I'd figured out who the terrorist was in the first scene, which annoyed me, and then I got unreasonably annoyed again when it seemed like I was wrong and I didn't recognise the guy who did set off the bomb :P In my opinion, the killer should always be introduced subtly within the first moments of a mystery. I didn't get to find out whether I was right, because I stopped watching with half an hour still to go when they brought us dinner.

Dinner was a beef-or-chicken situation, and sorry Debs I didn't take photos of it. I got the chicken. It was okay. Most of it tasted like food, except for the 'ice cream' which reminded me so strongly of the putty the orthodontist used to make a mold of my mouth when I got plates that I gagged a little bit. I left most of it in the tub. After dinner I watched an episode of Parks and Rec, my favourite sit-com at the moment, and then a few minutes of Never Let Me Go, which was a book I enjoyed a year or so ago. I enjoyed that bit of the movie too, but pretty soon they we starting to turn the lights off and I didn't want to be the douchebag who keeps everyone else up so I turned it off.

As it turned out there were plenty of other douchbags keeping us awake, and even though the plane had kind of been designed to make the light emanating from each seat minimal it didn't help, because I am apparently designed to notice frikken everything when I'm just trying desperately to get a couple of hours sleep. It also didn't help that I had this song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COiIC3A0ROM on repeat in my mind all night. I love me some Al Green, but damn if I wasn't cursing his musical genius by four am.

At five am I gave up and pulled my own douchemove by waking up both of my neighbours by watching another episode of Big Bang Theory. They both managed to fall back to sleep before breakfast, leaving me to marvel at their ability to sleep over the noise of the engine and without being able to put their seats back far enough for it to actually count as lying. Breakfast was lovely: scrambled eggs or white chocolate hotcakes. How is that a decision? I mean, I like eggs as much as the next person, but come on. White chocolate hotcakes? Let me at them.

We seemed to be landing really soon after that. I only actually properly talked to the girls next to me on the descent, which is a shame because they were both really nice to me and the girl on my right was actually a former exchange student/UBC graduate/History major herself. In fact with so much in common it should be interesting to see if our paths cross again at all in the next five months.

The airport was big and hot. Here's a picture of my plane from the window.


Here's a picture of the line I had to stand in to get through customs.


I was very intimidated. I thought I was going to be there for hours, but actually they were very efficient and it was moving very quickly. Let's just say I got through and not recall the several minutes I spent there sweating and freaking out a bit.

Shortly after that I experienced my first overseas disaster, which was that I left my coat and ukulele somewhere and couldn't find them. I stopped to tie my shoelace and put my documents away, walked off to the bathroom and came out feeling very confused about where I was and which direction I'd come from (remember this is me after about 25 hours of not sleeping). An airport is the worst place in the world to lose belongings, because in addition to the possibility that someone was picked them up and installed a bomb in one of them (although a ukulele-bomb seems like a stretch) there's the utter shame at having to admit you've lost something to airport staff. I eventually found them right where I'd left them (of course) but for a few minutes there I was very close to tears.

Anyway after an hour or so I'd gotten through customs, lost and regained my coat and ukulele and picked up my suitcase and headed out the door where my uncle was waiting for me. He took me home, and I spent the rest of the afternoon talking to him and my aunt and 15 year old cousin Colleen. We later went out for a bit of a walk to see where the bus stop was (very very close) and what the surrounding area looked like (very very nice). I didn't take photos of any of that I'm afraid, but I'll try to do so today. I got a pretty early night that night and slept for about ten hours straight. I woke up feeling very confused, but when I figured out where I was I was excited too.