First week...

I'm crossposting the e-mail I sent to my parents and professors, since I don't have time to type another entry out!
----------
The first week has been great and I am sending this e-mail from my cozy desk here at Plains FM. I've been here since Tuesday, and it's been great so far.
The flight over was interesting...if you can call it that. It was my first time eating a full meal on the plane, and Air New Zealand didn't spare any expense. The food was pretty good to have been "cooked" on an airplane. The entertainment selection on my OWN little t.v. was pretty good too. I didn't sleep much on the way to NZ due to being somewhat uncomfortable on the plane and the screaming kids in the row in front of me. And then there was the worry about my baggage because of all the confusion the airlines had me in! One place told me I had to pick it up in San Francisco, then another said Auckland, and then another said Christchurch! Luckily, my flights were set up to where I didn't have to get them at all until I got to Christchurch. Both bags got here safely and I was so happy to see Brian and Margaret (my program coordinators) on the other side of the doors!
Margaret informed me that my apartment wasn't quite ready yet and probably wouldn't be so until after lunch. Oh! All I wanted to do was take a shower after traveling a total of 20+ hours! So she took me to Josh's sister's, Nicole, flat so I could rest before lunch at 1.
We went to lunch at 1, right near the Polytech campus. It was quite delicious and I got to meet several people that I would be hanging out with for the next 8 weeks.
Finally after lunch, I was able to get to my apartment with help from Margaret. I took a shower and tried to rest, but I couldn't! Way too excited, I decided to go out and explore some of the roads around my apartment. I quickly found out that all the little hotspots in town are within a very quick walking distance OR in the alley right next door! I met Josh and his sister for happy hour around 5, and then around 8 I went to bed.
The next few days weren't very eventful. I just walked around the city exploring all the roads. I had dinner with Josh, Nicole, and Nicole's friends before heading out to a salsa party where Nicole teaches. I was then pulled out on the dance floor and got a small lesson in merengue. Interesting. Yes, there's pictures.
Sunday, Laura, one of my new polytech friends, and I went to Lyttleton Harbour and had some coffee. It's only a short bus ride away and I found the big gondola/ski lift thing that you can get amazing views of Christchurch and the surrounding areas in. My next free day I'll be doing that!
Monday was a holiday (Queen's Birthday) so I didn't have much to do except sit around town with a good book and a flat white (coffee with milk and sugar).
Tuesday was the big day, I met Nicki and the rest of the crew here at Plains. I was assigned to start building a database for the website of all the shows and descriptions for the shows. Oh, and little me, with my BIG southern accent, was asked to write and announce on the radio the community notices three times a week. I'm currently learning how to write news blurbs, and eventually I think I may be doing the 8:30 a.m. news briefs. Nicki also asked me to come up with an intro (using my Adobe Audition skills) for Kids Radio, which will be happening the first week in July. I may have moved on to my next internship at TVNZ/TV3 by that point, but it still seems neat!
Wednesday, I had an interview with the morning host, Nic, about my internship and experiences so far here in Christchurch.
So that brings us to today. The past few days I've developed a small head cold, nothing big, but I was told to visit the chemist (or pharmacy) to get some medicine and rest. I came to Plains at 20 til 8 this morning, and until about 1, I worked on my database. I got to interview Ruth Todd who does two shows on Plains, Bookenz and Women on Air. I like this woman already...she gave me a book! Anyway, I left, went to the chemist (spent NZ$36 on medicine, which is actually only about US$27), and took a small nap. Now I'm back here at 5:30 because we're having a staff dinner tonight! Margaret (the receptionist/accountant) and Hamish (the other intern/news guy) have been taking Thai cooking classes and they're going to cook for the staff tonight! Soooo, I'm gonna go have some curry to try to clear this head cold mess up!
I really love it here. One interesting thing about NZ...when people use their cell phones, it's mostly to text! To make a phone call costs about $1 a minute! You never see people talking on their cell phones, but you most definitely see them texting a lot!
The next few weeks look like this...I'll be here at Plains for 4 weeks, and then TVNZ/TV3 for about two weeks, and then I'll be taking a class at the polytech with the rest of the broadcast students for the last two weeks.

I'll be blogging about once a week, so look for it!

As they say in NZ,
Cheers!