Day 1--travel

Here we are hours into our journey and still not to our destination. I think that Brady at Discovery Student Adventures told me that we would basically be traveling 24 hours before we reach New Zealand for our first day of science exploration! And, there will be no rest for the weary.  We arrive, drop our stuff, eat lunch and get to work!

On this trip with me are students.  Is this really what my break is supposed to be all about? Traveling with students? Well, as much as it has never sounded like a good idea, I'm kinda diggin' it so far. Granted, we have only had contact with each other maybe a total of 5 hours, with 4 of those being sitting in the airport, everyone on their respective mobile devices updating Facebook, checking up on friends at home, sending texts "reminding " them that we will be abroad (say that in an English old lady accent!) or geeking out by reading about our first destination. Ok, yes, I was the one doing "homework" on our trip.  Actually, I don't know what the rest of the gang was up to, but I'm pretty sure I was the only one in nerd mode...I can't seem to get out of nerd mode and I'm just going to have to accept that that is me:)

So, who do we have on this trip? I am so lucky to have a really, really great group.  Well, they are a great-looking group, at least. They seem smart. They seem eager to learn.  Mostly, so far I believe that they are a diverse group.  I don't know these kids, with the exception of my own (duh, I guess) but have seen all of them at school randomly in the halls. We have had a few meetings that were not well-attended just by the nature of student life at CC.  Kids are always doing something club related, sport related, arts related, service related, class related etc, etc.  So although we are only a group of 4 (plus me), our lunch-time meetings didn't give us much time to get to know each other.  

Here's the brief information that I have gathered on each kiddo from my interactions with them:

Katelyn is a senior in the fall.  She is a musician and doesn't take Spanish. She has an older brother, who she seems to adore and who attends university in California.  She is a little bit quiet, as of now, but I suspect that she has some loud, craziness under her reserved exterior.

Nick will also be a senior in the fall.  He is a soccer player and I remember that when I met him, he had his jaw wired shut because of a soccer injury!! Holy crap! I guess I didn't realize that you could get your face hurt in soccer! He seems like a fairly independent kid.  He has his scuba certification, so he is going to actually scuba dive at The Great Barrier Reef while the rest of us snorkel.

Will is the one I think I know the best (besides Emma) just because I have had more interactions with him. He is about to be a junior..  He is so eager to know all of the details about what we are doing and what and who we are going to come into contact with.  He has checked out the hotels in each of the cities where we will be. He is a lover of travel, it seems. He is the one who seems the most excited, or maybe he is just the one showing his excitement.  

Emma is the youngest of the group.  She is about to be a sophomore.  She is athletic, as she reminds me often ("I've got your body, except I'M athletic and you're not."  I may need to remind her of who finished first at the Zombie 5k!!!!!) and on varsity cheer.  Truthfully, she could kick my butt, but let's not let her know that! She's excited about this trip because she LOVES travel (like me) and wants to see the world, sooner rather than later.  I was just telling my sister the other day that we've probably only got 3 years left with her before she's gone to the 4 corners of the world!

Our flight on Qantas Airlines...wow.  I think I may have gained 10 pounds just on the airplane.  We were greeted with dinner, which we had already kind of eaten in LAX because we didn't think we'd have food until morning.  (Our sandwiches at LAX were ok, but cost 15$!!! What the heck?!) After dinner, we were given a "goodie bag" for "in case you get hungry later on" that consisted of water, chips, cookies and chocolate. Most of us napped, watched free movies, or played games.  I just want


to say that this is quite OBVIOUSLY a quality airline for many reasons, the LEAST of which is that there were no fewer than 5 Russell Crowe movies to choose from on the in flight entertainment movie options, including "Les Miserables", "Gladiator" and "A Beautiful Mind" just to name a few of the tops. I am a happy, happy girl:)

I am so looking forward to getting to know each of these kids and seeing the sights in the foreign lands that are at our first stop at New Zealand and then on to Australia.  I have a feeling that we will be greeted with many different sights, hopefully NOT too many of the 2000 different species of spiders that reside here. I'd love to see them, actually...just behind a glass...and NOT up close and personal, like in my bed!!!  We will be arriving in Christchurch within a few hours.  We have yet to really meet the other groups, except random people who kinda seem like they are with us--we can tell by the fabulous grey t-shirts and bright orange (construction worker orange) lanyards.  However, we aren't completely sure because when we tried to introduce ourselves, we got some blank looks.  

Awesome/strange things so far--a pilot saying "shhhed-ule". :) that gave me a tickle (like my grandma D used to say)