Could Be Worse

March arrived in Chicago with another arctic blast and plenty of snow, but flights were back on schedule by the time I had to leave. I had a few hours’ layover at LAX, where I watched a beautiful sunset from the International Terminal, then 13 bumpy hours later arrived in Auckland about 7 am on Tuesday morning. I misread the bus route sign and got a tiki tour of Auckland before being dropped off a block away from my office more than an hour later. But, after a quick shower and a cup of tea, I was in pretty good shape for my first class at 11 am.

By 1 pm I was done teaching for the day and went to see a rental agent I'd corresponded with by email. The apartment was very small but fully furnished - including kitchen stuff, bed linens & towels – and only 15 minutes from my office. I signed a lease & would be able to get the key the next day. After that my buddy James - who had me over for Thanksgiving - drove me up to his place and he and his wife Adele proceeded to feed and entertain me so that I had no trouble keeping awake until almost 10, when I went out like a light.

Tuesday morning it was dark and drizzly when we took the ferry in from Whangapararoa. I had class at 9 am and was not pleased when the door to my classroom wouldn’t open, even after some of the big Islander guys tried to break it down. I called Property Services from someone’s mobile, then marched my students over to the General Study Area at the Info Commons building. It was fairly crowded, but one of my Tuakana students from last year saw my problem and quickly volunteered to move his study group for us.

The door was still jammed at 10 when my next class was ready to start, but by then the rain had stopped so we had class outside under a tree where the grass was dry. I later heard that Property Services couldn’t locate the building. And that the door had had the same problem before. Whatever.

My new apartment is in a brand new complex, and I’m the first person to live there – just like our place in Chicago. But no one had bothered to plug in any of the lights or appliances, and all of the dishes were clearly right out of the box – unwashed. I tried loading them into the dishwasher and found that no one had tried turning it on; it didn’t work. The next day I called the rental agent from my office (I don’t have a home phone), and an hour later she said it hadn’t been plugged in all the way but that it was fine now. That night I tried to run it again, but it still didn’t work. Turns out she hadn’t actually tried to run it, so didn’t see what I was talking about. But she’ll give it another try. Whatever.

I talked to Ali earlier today; it was 60 degrees in Chicago (!) and our furniture & stuff arrived this morning. I’ve been fighting jet lag all week, but today I'm feeling back to myself. Next week I'll have a much busier schedule and, in addition to classes, I’ve got a paper to rewrite (for submission to a journal), and I need to prepare my presentation for the conference in Melbourne.

But it’s also the end of summer, and absolutely glorious outside. Although I’m skipping the Pasifika Festival today, tonight is the opening event of AK07 – Auckland’s biennial arts festival. They’re having a fireworks extravaganza, so after work I’m going to pick up some Burger Fuel and head to the Domain for the show.

Cheers,
Sandie