The Driving Lesson

I learned to drive the kiwi way this week and yes they do drive on the opposite side of the road. Technically the U.S. is the only country that drives on the right side of the road, so now I'll be on par with the rest of the world. Anyways, the church has a car which they gave me to use for my time in NZ. Its a sweet little Toyota Camry and the wheel is on the right side of the car. A nice lady from the church gave me a crash course in NZ driving. Everything is basically the same except for the round-a-bouts. New Zealand loves its round-abouts. Round-abouts are little traffic circles that are used in stead of traffic lights to keep the flow of traffic moving-and there everywhere. It took a little getting used to, but I'm starting to warm up to the idea of round-abouts.
I had my first experience of getting lost this week. I was supposed to drive to the church (they meet in a primary school) to photograph the women's bible study. So I did what any good driver would do, I look up directions on google maps. Simple enough, the church is only like less than 10 minutes from the hosue and all I had to do was go through a couple of roundabouts. Well, google maps turned out to be not quite as accurate as I had hoped and I missed my turn off on one of the roundabouts. I accidently drove half way to Maraetai Beach, which is a harbor. It was a forty minute adventure driving in the dark. Needless to say I never made it to church, but I did find my way home. After that adventure I was a little tramatized to drive, I felt that me and the roundabouts didn't get along too well. However, Kristin and Michael were quite sympathetic to my plight. Michael took me driving and helped me reaquiant myself with the roundabouts. Kristin gave me an old cell phone of her's to use so that I can call for directions in case I have another "adventure".
Now, I'm anticipating getting out and experiencing NZ through some wheels...

The Begining...

So, I arrived in Auckland Monday morning after a long turbulant flight over the Pacific Ocean. My host family-Michael, Kristin, and Abigail (the baby)-picked me up from the airport. A security guard at Auckland International Airport broke off the wheels on my suitcase when he lifted it to put it through a security screening. I have to admidt I am sad about the suitcase. It has been my companion for almost all my travels for two years. Anyways...I am living with Michael and Krisitin in a house where the bottom half is the church office and the top is their home. So basically I don't have to go very far to go to work-which is good considering I'm almost always late for things. I like being in a country where I can drink their water from the tap...its quite convienent. In case your wondering the time change is 15 hours ahead for those of you in California and 17 for my Chicago friends. The first night I slept like 15 hours so I'm pretty much caught up on the time change. I drank my first Marlo (I think thats how you spell it) which is like a type of hot chocolate and I am learning the difference between NZ and American words. For example the word Lollies are Candy and Biscuits are Cookies. This week I am getting acclamated to New Zealand. I am going to Youth night, which is the teenage youth service. I am working with a team of three people in production. This week we are beginning preperations for up and coming projects. So its its been a good couple of days....and I'm looking forward to more