New Facebook Status

reads: Theresa is 11 days and 8,190 miles from home.

Meaning: I'm typing this from Auckland, New Zealand. More to come!

Aaaaand We're Off!

Almost a year of going around saying "I'm moving to New Zealand," and we're hours away. My carry-on is packed, my purse will be soon (soon!), and for the first time in my life I'll be a true backpacker. My parents laughed uproariously when I first put the backpack on and toppled backwards onto the bed.

Tomorrow at noon I'm meeting my college pal Esther at the airport, where we fly to Tokyo. I would be looking forward to it a wee bit more if the friend we're visiting had given us a tad more information than just his address. When are we meeting? Which tube/metro stop does he live off? Is he even alive? Exactly.

Well, after our four days in Tokyo we'll be going off to meet two of our girlfriends in South Korea: Esther's Texan friend from her Master's program in London, and my English flatmate from when I studied in Wales. Activities will include going to a 'bang' (the word for rooms you can rent -- e.g. a DVD bang, where you watch, you got it, DVDs), and possibly getting a fish pedicure. Supposedly when the minnows eat the dead skin off your feet it feels like your foot's asleep.

Then it's farewell to Esther and hello to China -- for eight hours. I ran downtown and back twice on Monday to get my visa, so I'm set for tooling around Shanghai for a few hours. Now, if only my friend's friend would write me back and let me know where to meet her... Story of my life right now.

Finally, after a 10-hour flight to Sydney, a one-hour layover, and a three-hour flight, I'll be in Auckland, and in my homeland for the next 12 months. My visa program is putting me up at a hostel for a couple of nights, then I'll stay with a friend-of-a-friend. I've already arranged with another American to celebrate Halloween with her. I'm going as someone related to the election. Guess who.

At the moment, having never set food in New Zealand, I'm imagining it to be a mixture of Wales and Hawaii. Remote and seen as a bit of a backwater by its larger neighbor (Wales with England, NZ with Australia), but with the Polynesian culture and stupendous natural beauty of Hawaii.

I can't wait to find out if I'm right.

Forward, Ho!

After inquiries from friends and expressions of amazement from relatives, I offer you my official itinerary:

Mon. 6 Oct. - Last day of work
Sat. 11 Oct. - Farewell party (details TBA)
Fri. 17 Oct. - Fly to Tokyo with my friend Esther to visit our Swiss friend Mike (arriving Sat. 18)
Wed. 22 Oct. - Fly to Seoul with Esther to visit her Texan friend; take bus to Ochang to visit our English friend Lucy
Sun. 26 Oct. - Depart Seoul, with an 8-hour layover in Shanghai and a 1-hour layover in Sydney
Mon. 27 Oct. - Arrive in Auckland, New Zealand
1st week of Nov. - At some point, go to Wellington, find temp job
Dec. - My family visits for 20 days
Thurs. 25 Dec. - Find someone to spend Christmas with

On Sunday, when some friends and I stopped by to see my grandpa in Champaign, I told him Esther and I were going to Tokyo. "I was in Japan once," he said, darting a glance at Asian-American Esther. "But it was under circumstances I'd better not get into..." I wanted to shout, "SHE'S CHINESE! Don't worry!" It was actually kind of funny, the way he put it.

I'm looking forward to going to Asia, especially since I think the trip will be a nice buffer between uprooting my entire life and moving to a strange country I've never been to, where I've never met anyone. It's all to scary to contemplate, but go I must. I'm sure I'll be fine...especially if you all visit.

C-C-C-California

Remember how I took a trip last year to New England, where I ended up booking the ticket for the wrong day, going to the wrong airport, AND the guy I was seeing ended up being hospitalized for several days after I left? (I know what you're thinking, dumbasses. He had an inner ear infection.)

This time around, I went to Yosemite for a wedding, then spent a few days in and around San Francisco. The bride and I, her trusty bridesmaid, almost missed out flight from O'Hare. One of the bride's bags went missing (and of course it was the one with all of her clothes for her honeymoon). I almost fainted during the wedding and had to sit down and drink water during the vows. When the pal I was visiting near San Fran drove me through the mountain roads, my motion sickness was so bad I had to have him pull over and let me out. And in rare form, I managed to lose my phone. Again.

But all is not tragic: we obviously made it to Cali; the bride's bag was found; she didn't notice my almost-fainting spell, since I was standing behind her; at least I saw some nice mountain scenery; and my phone was found by a lovely cabbie, dropped off at a friend-of-friend's, and will arrive by FedEx tomorrow.

I cannot imagine the near-catastrophes that will ensue on my voyage to Japan, South Korea and New Zealand, with a layover in Shanghai.

Bring it on.

The street signs say Haight and Ashbury, bitches!

Take Me Home, Country Roads

"Let's go to West Virginia," my girlfriends Esther and Helena and I decided. Esther and I had never been, and we all wanted a scenic part of the country close enough to drive to on a four-day weekend.

And thus we ended up at Pipestem State Park for their Irish Road Bowling tournament. We even made it on the 6pm AND 10pm news, which you can watch here (click on "Watch Story Video" under the photo). On the 6pm news the sportscaster mentioned "the three girls from Chicago who drove all the way down," making us out to be Road Bowling fanatics. But no matter. We tied for highest number of throws and almost got a trophy*, and at the free picnic at the completion of the afternoon the organizer ended by leading everyone in a round of applause for us. I have never felt more welcomed.

Except for later that night -- when we happened upon a square dancing workshop/performance at the lodge. We went in to watch the dancing, ending up staying over an hour and learning a line dance with the cute old couples in their matching outfits (and some women with frilly bloomers). The caller even asked everyone to teach us an entire reel! Again, the welcome we received was overwhelming.

That day ranks up there with my heretofore Best Travel Day Ever -- a day in Snowdonia National Park, Wales, with my friend Marissa while we studied abroad -- and shall be known henceforth as my Favorite American Travel Day.

Until the next trip...

*goal of Irish Road Bowling: to complete the course in the fewest number of throws. we had a bowl-off with the team we tied with, which consisted of ladies ranging in age from 50-something to 77 years old. they won.States visited on trip: Indiana, Kentucky ("unbridled spirit"), West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and back through Indiana.

Pacific Northwest

1 province.
2 states.
3 cities.
4 days.

As I will probably never get around to typing up an official trip report, here's a short email I wrote about my flyby visit to Seattle/Portland/Vancouver on Dec. 6--9th. It's too short -- just like my trip was!


I was only in Portland this time for 11 hours because the flooding shut down the highway from Seattle. Bus from Seattle: 8 hours due to detour to Yakima. Luckily the train was running by then, so I got to see my college roommate and her beautiful week-old baby girl.

Seattle was grand; it reminded me of Europe. The first afternoon, while waiting for my train, I visited the R.E.I. flagship store. Then an old college buddy whisked me off to a coffeeshop (independent, natch) and a classic view of the city at night. On my return two days later I played tourist: drank Starbucks while on monorail to Space Needle, watched the flying fish at Pike Place Market.

But my favorite was Vancouver. It's glorious, a city made of sparkling glass, surrounded by water on all sides, enormous hills transitioning into snow-capped mountains in the distance. The vibrancy of a seaside city is thrilling to a Midwestern farmgirl, and the sheer pleasure of taking one of the teensy ferries (not to be confused with fairies) -- about the size of a rowboat -- brings a smile to my face. I was lucky to meet some lovely people in the hostel, hanging out most of the time with a suicidal Englishman and an Aussie who used so many colloquialisms I could hardly understand her. (What's a 'ranga'? Exactly.) Even on the El home I met an interesting fellow named Jaquan, a dead ringer for Terrance Howard, returning from a ski trip to Vermont funded by settlement money from mistakenly being accused of kidnapping. Or something.

Anyway, when I started to imagine honeymooning in Vancouver, I knew I was smitten. The only other place I've done that was Slovenia (with a bit of time in the Budapest baths). So a Slovene wine tour or Pacific skiing; my lucky future husband will get to pick.

Galena

Last weekend, I took five friends home for a night on the farm followed by a trip to my favorite town in Illinois: Galena. It was so much fun introducing people to new places, and even though we had a diverse group who didn't all know each other, everyone got along swimmingly.

As David (the Swede) put it:
Combine two americans, one chinese, one swiss, one french, half of a persian, one swede, two cars. Add the best of what Illinois has to offer and what do you get? A hell of a time of course!

Esther, Theresa, Mike & David by the shores of the Mississippi
Click for all the photos

Ohioan/half a Persian Garin already wrote up her impressions of the trip, so I'll let you read her take on things. Just to explain, though, my mom was stalked by a bunch of Persians in college, so her negative comment had more to do with that than any latent racism. She loves when I bring home people of different backgrounds. Everyone is now invited for Thanksgiving.

Eurotrip - Finally

It's a slow and laborious process, writing something that sounds good. Although over a month has passed since I got back from Europe, I'm still determined to write about it, more for a coherent record than anyone else.

I'm sure there are those of you who'd still like to hear about it--or at least while away time at work--so here are the first fruits of my labor: the introduction and bit about Prague. Expect long essays on Budapest and Ljubljana to be forthcoming.

Please check out the photos taken by my friend Marissa. Happy reading!