Let the Adventure Begin!

Pros:
- We made it to Wellington!
- Sara and I got to ride in Erika's car because the van was full of girls and stuff. I love riding with Erika (our director) for so many reasons. One of them being that she is super passionate about life and she's constantly looking for her next adventure. She loves the outdoors and her field of expertise is in multicultural education. We had some great conversations about teaching and helping English language learners. It was awesome! She is a great resource to have because that is something that I am really interested in.
- We had perfect weather for our drive down and no car problems.
- We got to drive through gorgeous countryside with green hills, streams, and lots of sheep (more sheep live here than people)
- We are spending the night with some of James' family (he's our guide) and they had a full meal prepared for us as well as enough beds spread throughout the house (mostly on couches and blow up beds) for all of us to be comfortable. They also offered us their showers and their Internet. These people are so amazingly kind.
- Today ended a lot better than it began :)

Cons:
- Woke up at 4:45... Super tired... It was not my fault that we stayed up so late last night. We couldn't exactly control when we left. It was great to spend time with the ysa but going to bed at 1 when you're waking up about 3ish hours later... No bueno.
- Because Sara and I were in the car with Erika we had to take turns sleeping so to make sure that Erika stayed awake. For some weird reason I couldn't fall asleep in the car. Maybe because I was excited about our trip and I didn't want to miss a single thing.
- Sara and I didn't get the memo of how we were supposed to pack. We shared one big suitcase with all of our stuff for our two week trip. When James picked us up he asked us why we had packed so much stuff and if we could take it out of the big suitcase and fit it in our backpacks but our packs were already full of other necessities. So once we got to his family's house he got out a few backpacks for us and asked us to transfer our stuff over so that it would be easier to transport. It's not like I packed that much stuff... Whatever it all worked out and James was only doing it to make things easier for us. I just wasn't in the most cooperative mood because I was so very tired and yes a bit grumpy.
- I was supposed to meet up with some family friends today but there were a few minor changes to our travel itinerary and I had to reschedule with them for our trip home. We'll have more time to actually see Wellington on the way back so it works out but I felt bad for changing the plans on them last minute. But the changes were out of my hands so that's that.
- Just to make things complete it's that time of month...