The One Week Mark!

I've officially been in the country 1 week today!  Seems like I've been here longer to be honest, as I feel pretty settled in.  Seeing as it was my first sort of "day off" I attempted to sleep in a little bit, but it's pretty much no use trying to do that, especially on a school day, mornings are very loud and crazy!  There's quiet again after about 8:45am but by then it's usually too late to fall back asleep because the noise usually begins by 7 if not sooner!  At least it's safer to avoid all the morning hecticness when possible.  Unfortunately, there was an issue with one of the other cars and it was in the garage getting fixed, so Julia needed to use the big red today.  I accompanied her to Pak N Save, a grocery store that she said would be an interesting social experience.  I sort of could see where she was coming from, definitely busier and with a larger variety of people than the local Devonport New World supermarket.  It was kind of like in BJs or Costco style the way the entire stock of the store was set out right in front of you and stacked up to the ceiling, but things weren't really sold in bulk.  Also everything from the labels to the plastic backs and checkout lines were this really terrible yellow color, it was like an overdose of yellow!

A semi-exciting part of the day was that I got my first piece of mail!  It was only my Kiwibank card, but now I feel more like an official resident.  I also purchased a Go Rider card for the LINK bus in Auckland, seeing as it's easier to ferry and bus to yoga in Newmarket than to drive across the bridge each time. 

I took my first ferry ride today, from the Bayswater ferry port.  It is literally just down the street from the house and when the weather gets a little bit more steady (stops switching between rain and sun and crazy wind 100 times a day), then I will probably bike and ferry and bike to yoga.  But it's easier just to walk when you're not really sure where you're going.  Better transportation for exploring.  It is a quick 10 minute right across to Auckland City.

Harbor Bridge from ferry

Auckland City from ferry

Auckland City from ferry back to Bayswater

Once on the other side, I had a few hours to explore before the yoga class started at 6pm.  I wandered down Queen St until it looked like the end of the high traffic area.  I was pretty excited to find a Dunkin Donuts! Although, I don't think they've started doing bagel twists yet, but I didn't look too closely!  It's almost like a Dunkin Donuts express!  It's more of a shop window/counter on the side of the street, no real door to go into or places to sit.  But Dunkin Donuts, nonetheless, nice to know there's a comfort of home if I need it.  There was also a McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's right in a row, definitely doesn't really feel all that foreign, being so far away.  It probably feels the least foreign of all foreign cities I've been to actually.  The general set up of the city and types of shops and food places are very familiar and it is very modern.  There's also the fact that everyone speaks English so there's really no problem with communication at all.  Once I'd explored Queen St. I went into the transportation center and asked the best way to get to Newmarket (where the New Zealand School of Yoga is), having previously researched online, I knew the general direction and distance I needed to go, and found the LINK bus to be my best option.  Sure enough the woman pulled out the LINK bus pamphlet and told me which stop it departed from on the next street over.  There are soooo many different buses going all over the place each to their own special stops, I think may have seen just as many buses out of service and I did in service, just parked a few meters away from their stop taking a break with a buddy.

The LINK bus brought me to my stop on Broadway just past the yoga school.  There was still about 30 minutes before the 6 o'clock class started, but luckily I was welcome to start today.  Just down the street was the Warehouse, a sort of Walmart equivalent but on a much smaller scale and not quite as discounted.  I still found a few things I'd needed so it was the perfect thing to fill the time before yoga started.  Each class you're supposed to arrive about 5 minutes early and do a couple specific stretches before class begins.  The girl running this class is in the teacher training program, and is about 6 weeks from finishing, so it was nice to see where I'd be at in about a year!  She did a nice job of walking us through everything and explaining, but if there was any little thing she missed out her teacher, the director would step in a remind her and she also came around and fixed every little thing about each pose that we did.  There were also only 5 of us in the class which was nice, and 2 people on the other side of the room just doing their own thing.  We used all kinds of props and they have these ladder wall support things to help you stretch and twist and align yourself.  It was really interesting how they had us set up down dog at first, with a rope attached to the wall, looped around our hips and positioned just right so that it's pulling just the right part of your body upwards.  Then without much warning the instructor was sitting on my back/shoulders to push me down farther!  It was a little bit surprising because I'd never been sat on in a yoga class before, but I could really feel the extra stretch.

The other difference was that the class lasted just over 2 hours!! Something I did not really expect, nor did I realize was happening until I checked my watch at the end.  It was almost 10 past 8pm and I THOUGHT the last ferry back to Bayswater was at 8:25.  So I ran outside to wait for the bus back.  The bus got me to the ferry terminal at about 8:28, so I thought I'd just missed the ferry, turns out it was at 8:10 anyway, but I had looked at the last ferry leaving Bayswater, not Auckland, so fortunately there was another one leaving a 9:10.  I was surprised to see most places had already closed for the night!  I wandered back down Queen St for awhile but it had started raining again and was kind of chilly at this point.  I found a Kebab/Pizza/Coffee place open so decided to try a BBQ Chicken kebab for dinner.  It was pretty good, but not something I want to eat every Thursday night, so I think I'll have to work out a better routine for the Thursday yoga evening.  Anyway, I had a text from John asking if I wanted a ride home from the ferry, seeing as it was dark and kind of rainy and I hadn't walked back yet in the dark, so he was there waiting for me when I got off.  Apparently Reuben was wanting to come pick me up from the ferry at 7, was worried I wouldn't make it home, I guess, or before his bedtime anyway, which pretty much means the end of the night!  Nice to know I was worried about, though! 

Now I am off to watch the season premiere of Glee, which has taken ALL day to load on this not so speedy internet connection...let's hope it was worth it!  The down side to being in the reverse season is that most shows here are not only behind, but have just finished for the summer!!  So it looks like I will be following them all online.