Aotearoa

Welcome to the Land of the Long White Cloud!

After a long day (or was it two?) of traveling, I arrived at 5:30am in Auckland.

Some highlights from my time in airports:

*Weirdest sight: A vending machine at the Houston airport that dispensed only Proactiv products.

*How I knew I was flying to Los Angeles: By eavesdropping on the conversation between the two men sitting next to me, a 40-year-old guitarist and a 27-year-old dancer/choreographer.

*Best sensory experience: The several minutes spent outside one terminal in L.A., waiting for a shuttle to another terminal. The temperature was PER-fect - somewhere in the 70s, with a cool breeze blowing. Refreshing, even with the car exhaust.

*Worst sensory experience: Laying eyes upon a naked Natalie Portman, advertising perfume on a giant poster outside the Duty Free shop. Stop haunting me!

The Air New Zealand flight from L.A. to Auckland was somewhere between 12-13 hours -- and it wasn't so bad! The plane was huge, with more than 60 rows (9 people per row in the economy section). I think because the plane was so large, it was hard for me to feel claustrophobic or anxious about being on a plane for such a long time. There were two young women sitting next to me, so unfortunately I couldn't spread out... but they were polite and they didn't smell.

Every seat had its own built-in TV entertainment system, with hundreds of movies, TV shows, music videos, and albums to keep us amused. I knew it was going to be a wonderful trip when the safety video came on... and Richard Simmons appeared! Watch it for yourself here.

I perused some of the entertainment options but spent most of the flight trying to sleep. I also watched the flight tracker on my screen to see what kind of progress we were making. There aren't many geographical reference points when you're flying over the Pacific Ocean. "Wow, we're flying past Nuku'alofa!" (That's the capital of Tonga, if you're playing along at home.)

Garrett was at the airport to pick me up in his rental car, a "Nissan Sunny." Then, and several times since, I went to get in the car on the wrong side! It was somewhat strange to be driving on the "wrong" side of the road. The signage in most places is absent or incomprehensible, so we did get lost driving into the city. Additionally, most intersections are rotaries, which are even more incomprehensible. But in the end we made it to the Waldorf (yes, owned by the same company!), hotel apartments. It's very close to the harbor, and the neighborhood reminds me somewhat of downtown Seattle.

We went back to sleep for a few hours, had breakfast (or "elevensies," the good Hobbits we are), and then went out exploring. Garrett drove us an hour west, to the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park. He had been there the previous day with his group of American students and wanted to share it with me. Once we exited the suburbs and passed my first sheep-seen-from-the-road, we entered the Waitakere. The roads were narrow, winding, and generally ridiculous. I'm surprised my stomach survived it! The area is heavily forested and resembled a jungle; I imagine it's similar to Hawaii. There were crazy signs, such as frequent squiggly arrows to indicate the hairpin curves and, my favorite, a large exclamation point. This indicated that there were hidden driveways along the route. Even though it's technically a park, many people make their homes there.

We descended the road and arrived at Piha Beach, at the Tasman Sea. The scenery was, to say the least, jaw-dropping. Unfortunately, Garrett has not charged my camera's battery since arriving a month ago in New Zealand... so I took only a handful of photos before the battery went dead. :) It was a good excuse to stay focused in the present moment! We climbed to the almost-top of Lion Rock, a giant mass of a rock that resembles a reclining lion from the south when the sun begins to set. (There's a good picture here.) We watched surfers wrestle with the enormous waves crashing on shore, and we watched small children and dogs run wild on the sands. We rock-hopped over boulders covered with hundreds of glistening black clams to explore more remote coves. Garrett pointed out a sleeping seal hidden in the rocks. At "The Gap," we watched enormous waves gather in the ocean and then crash and spill between two rock faces. The water was an incredible shade of blue-green in most places.

I was sad to leave, but we had to return the rental car. It cost 52 New Zealand dollars (about $43 U.S.) to fill the gas tank. Yikes!

Garrett showed me around his neighborhood, City Center. It seems to be a mix of tall office buildings, upscale retail shops, karaoke bars, coffee shops, Internet cafes, and stores selling outdoor gear. I will do some more exploring on my own this week. We finished the evening with an amazingly delicious Indian dinner at the restaurant next door to Garrett's building. Phew!

Photos to come soon!

The adventure begins

Welcome back to our blog!

I have dusted off the keyboard and resurrected this website so that I can chronicle herein our experiences in New Zealand! Thanks to the National Science Foundation and some hard work, Garrett is doing research this summer (or winter) at the University of Auckland. He has been there since the beginning of June, and I leave tomorrow, July 1st, to join him. I'll be there for five weeks, and I plan on posting comments and photos as often as possible. Garrett has my camera, so you'll have to wait a few days for pictures... but you're probably not interested in photos of airports!

As of this afternoon, I am mostly packed. Despite my interest in minimalism (documented elsewhere on this blog), I plan on taking more than just a backpack and deodorant. I think I am adequately supplied to face the New Zealand winter.

I am somewhat nervous about the 13-hour flight from Los Angeles to Auckland. However, I hope that my books, iPod, and some melatonin will see me through to the other side.

Stay tuned!

Christmas came early

Behold, my Christmas present to Garrett: a ukulele!

Massachusetts Institute of To-do-ology

When we aren't living minimally, we tend to maximize the stress in our lives. There is always something to do -- whether it be related to work, school, family, the house, or one's hobbies. This seems to be true especially during the holiday season, which is upon us!

Remember the minimalism philosophy? First, identify what's important to you. Second, eliminate everything else. This is a helpful perspective when creating to-do lists.

Garrett and I got this idea from zenhabits. Create focus (and success) but identifying the three most important things you want to accomplish each day -- your MITs (Most Important Tasks). You may accomplish more than just three goals for the day, but if you can tackle your three main objectives, then you should feel a sense of fulfillment -- and pride!

Personally, I love to-do lists. I live by to-do lists. Writing this blog post was on my to-do list. But my organization and forethought can be my downfall. My to-do lists quickly snowball into lengthy scrolls. As I cross off one task, I add three more. I rarely feel that I am "finished." I usually feel guilty or disappointed at the end of a day when I haven't crossed everything off my list.

About a month ago, I started implementing the MIT philosophy at work, where I type a to-do list each day. This used to be a monstrous list of 10-20 bulleted points. Rather than helping me focus my energy, this kind of list left me frazzled and disoriented. So I began to choose my three MITs each day -- three and only three! At the top of my list, I prioritize the three tasks that I must accomplish that day -- meeting with a teacher, finishing a report, testing a student, filling out a special education form, etc. And then I tackle them, one by one. This keeps me from going cross-eyed, scanning through 20 tasks. On most days, I can accomplish my MITs, and then a few extra tasks that are bulleted below my top three. That's like icing on the cake!

Being organized in this fashion decreases my stress at work and at home. I usually write my 3 MITs for tomorrow at the end of today's work day. That way, I leave work with a clear head. I'm less likely to stress about work at night if I have already laid out my plans for the next day.

Garrett and I have recently started using this strategy on the weekends. Rather than put pressure on ourselves to do all of the things we meant to do during the week but didn't, we chat over Saturday breakfast, naming a few simple goals that are related to both errands and leisure time. It helps! A to-do list shouldn't get the better of you -- especially on the weekend.

Whether you're in Cambridge or Texas, let MIT into your life.

Happy Halloween!

It's Garrett's favorite time of the year! We spent Halloween eve at a party at Beth's apartment, followed by a pub crawl in the area of Houston known as Montrose.

Here's Indiana Jones and his goddess! This year's addition to Garrett's costume was a handmade fedora -- from scratch! (Or "from felt.") He worked very, very hard on it, and the end product is fantastic. Soon I'll be putting together an online photo album to document the making of the hat.

Beth dressed as a sailor, and Stephanie was Miss Piggy!

Even Lucky had a costume. He was supposed to be a dinosaur, but has also been described as a Reluctant Dragon.

Chris is an engineering student. One of his hobbies is making speakers. It took him about two hours to construct this mobile boom box, using an iPod, some wires, a lot of duct tape, and the speaker from his guitar amp. He was the most popular member of our group on the pub crawl, blasting music wherever he went!

After several hours at Beth's place, we went out to the pub crawl. There were tons of costumed people roaming the streets. Here is Laura, Patricia, Spencer, and me. Laura and Spencer are teachers at my school.

I didn't get any photos of them, but some of my favorite costumes were Quail Man (from the Nickelodeon cartoon "Doug"), Tippi Hedren from "The Birds" (a blue dress with birds attached to it, and scratches on her face), and Mormon missionaries (two guys wearing white short-sleeve button-up shirts, ties, nametags, black pants, backpacks, and bike helmets). Finalists in the official competition included a group dressed as the cast of "Spaceballs."

We ended the night at the Firkin & Phoenix, a pub next door to Beth's building. She goes there on a regular basis and knows the staff -- it's her "Cheers"! Yesterday the bartender presented her with her very own mug, which sits on the Tuesday shelf. She is very pleased.

We plan to go on a walk this evening around dusk to check out the trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood. Have a spooky day!