Greetings from the FUTURE!

Hey there, superfans. I haven't been able to get on the computer much in the past few days. New Zealand has a shocking, shocking lack of wifi. I haven't found any hotspots so far. It's all internet cafes (like the one I'm at now). This particular cafe has got the same Dell computers that I used when I started working at the law firm FIVE years ago. But they do have Skype, which is nice. But not Adobe Acrobat Reader--I had to take 20 minutes to download the program yesterday so that I could print a one-page PDF file.

Speaking of telephonic communications, I have a mobile phone now. Email me if you want the number!

It's lovely here, but I'm still disoriented. It's fall, and it gets dark at about 5:30 (boo!). The weather has been nice. The sun here is blinding, and I'm thinking of buying a darker pair of sunglasses. And it's strange--the sun in the morning here, the way it casts light, feels like it should be an afternoon sun. Is it because I'm south of the equator? Or just my imagination?

The hostel I'm staying at is worth every penny of the US$50/week I'm spending to stay there. I haven't worn shower sandals in years. Probably not since college. But I went out yesterday to the K-Mart (yes, they have one here), and invested in a pair of flip-flops. I feel better stepping into the shower now. The beds are adequate and the paper-thin carpeting isn't that dirty. A room may become available in my sister's flat, and if it does, I'll be moving there in a heartbeat. But at any rate, we'll be leaving to travel around in a couple of weeks, so it soon won't be an issue.

The coffee here is pretty bad, which is unfortunate. I'm going to try to get used to drinking tea. I miss coffee.

I'm not used to the accents yet. When people ask me questions, I sometimes answer the question I think they asked, then realize three seconds later that I said the completely wrong thing. Ordering food is somewhat difficult when they start offering me different options. "Greevy? What? Oh, no gravy, thanks." My favorite number here is "seeven."

I'll get some pictures up when I figure out how to upload them from my SD card onto a computer. Since I can't use my computer, I don't have a way to get the data out of the SD card.

G'day!