Hello Te Anau!

So I'm finally here! Wow! It seemed like that journey took FOREVER, and yet, not long at all.

So far, the family I'm living with is really nice. My "Outhouse" is quite awesome!

In Queenstown, after we left the airport, we went to the mall for lunch. I had McDonalds! I know, lame...but I really felt the need to have a bit of a 2 Cheeseburger sentimental moment. Plus I wanted to see if there was any difference in the taste...and not really.

Then we started the journey home. It probably only took about an hour and a half but it felt SO long to me. I think it's coz I was just really tired. And thrown off by driving on the wrong side of the road...on the way we stopped for Hokey Pokey ice cream. It's really quite good...it's got bits of what tastes like butterscotch or caramel candy in it.

So we got home, I got a tour of the place and brought my stuff up to my bedroom. Then we went back into the house, Karl came to visit, and then John and I went in to watch some TV. Even THAT was super different! Different commercials for different places...all in Kiwi accents! I'm having quite a bit more culture shock than I had thought...haha. But it's not too serious. The thing that will be the hardest is learning to drive on the opposite side of the road, I think. And I really hope that the car Karl's got lined up for me isn't standard...I don't know how to drive standard! haha

One thing that only slightly frightens me is something I learned yesterday on the way home...Fiona mentioned that they always have lots of wild venison in the house, because John hunts deer. And wild pigs. And I forget what else.

I don't know if many of you know this...but I am SO not into deer. Or hunting. Haha...well I guess meeting the ever-hunting Joynt family this past summer was a good preparation for me, so I wouldn't take John's hunting as total offensive taboo or anything! And I've refused to eat venison my whole life, but I'm not going to tell them that. I'm quite alright with eating whatever it is they put in front of me...I gotta open my mind anyways. I just think it's hilarious that my whole life I've gotten mad at my parents for eating deer...and I thought I was pretty prepared to take whatever people could give me. I never thought once about opening up to deer - it didn't cross my mind. haha...but I guess this is a good test. And a character builder!

Noticing differences just while driving home was...wow it was surprising! Instead of saying YIELD on upside-down triangular signs, it says GIVE WAY. So cute! And I was just complaining the other day to my mother that I hate when the lines on the road that gives you passing rights don't warn you when they're going to end...so if you're on a strange road, you don't know if you have a kilometer left to pass someone, or 100 metres! But the lines here DO warn you! The solid line starts to break up beside the broken lines so you know when your passing time is about up. And sign shapes and colours are all different. It's weird.

Jet lag got the best of me last night, and I ended up falling asleep at 6:30 pm. I woke up at 4:30 this morning because of that. So I just took that time to organize my room and write a letter or two. I also took advantage of the alone time to do a bit of crying, coz I started feeling pretty homesick. But since then it's been relaxed...picked up a few things from the second hand place that Karl runs out of his garage (alarm clock, tea kettle, etc)...organized my room some more, wrote another letter, ate lunch and came out here to catch up on the emails and journalling.

And now I'm going to have a quick nap before the service tonight, and hopefully that'll tide me over til about 10 tonight so I can start getting on a regular sleeping schedule.

I've learned that Kiwis are extremely fast talkers and even I have trouble understanding them once in a while...but all in all I'm pretty familiar with the terminology, just the pronounciation combined with the speed throws me off a little sometimes. I've also learned that dinner is called "tea" - or at least in the Steffens household it is. And, at least in this house, the toilet is in a different room than the rest of the bathroom stuff...I'm not sure if that's all across the map, or just in a few homes. Haha I'll let you know for sure.

I have another post that I wrote in the Auckland airport that I haven't had a chance to put on here yet. Once I get a power source converter for my laptop, I'll post it on here.

But for now, nap time! Goodnight!