Zombie Travels

Since I left Denver on Tuesday afternoon, it seems as though I haven't stopped moving. Now, however, I've an unplanned morning which has allowed me some time to pause and reflect on the bigger travel portion of my journey.

Upon arrival at DIA I was grateful to be able to check my three 40lb. bags all the way through to New Zealand. The usual airport obstacle course of security, concourse trains, and weary travelers went fairly well. I was glad to see so many familiar faces from orientation - not only had I made a few new friends, but their presence provided comfort and validation that I was, in fact, where I needed to be.

The flight from Denver to LA was as average and as ordinary as any other domestic traveling I've done, though I was glad we had a longer lay-over in LA as it provided the opportunity to stretch and prepare for the longer flight to Sydney.

During orientation, the travel department had asked for a volunteer to be the travel Point of Contact (POC) for our group, and Lohan's (obviously a pseudo name to protect the identity of this poor soul) hand immediately went up. I was quite amazed because this was her first year in the program and that seemed like a load of responsibility that even I - a responsible and overly eager girl - avoided even considering. But in volunteering for the position, she was rewarded with an upgrade coupon to change her flights to First Class (ahhhh...now I see that someone has tipped her off, she did mention previously to me that her boyfriend was already down on the ICE). As chance, karma or some such other force would have it, she lost her passport by the time we got to LA (anonymous sources indicate that in true Lohan form, she was completely intoxicated before she even boarded the plane to LA). The point of this gossip, however, is not to highlight the overwhelming presence of everyone-knows-everyone's business and the genearl high school atmosphere of the group, but to bring to your attention the first slang acronym I've learned: FIN-G (pronounced fin-gee), which stands for Fucking Idiot New Guy/Girl. A term I hope to never hear in reference to me. Lohan missed the flight to Sydney due to this incident, but by some celebrity miracle, made it into Christchurch yesterday.

The flight from LA to Sydney was brutal. I had a window seat, which meant I was squashed all the way in the corner and had to ask two other people to get up every time that I got up. Thankfully though, I sat next to two friendly boys who encouraged me to get up and stretch and was on my same wavelength when it came to conversation. I watched movie after movie in an attempt to make the time pass (The Brothers Bloom, The Proposal, My Life in Ruins and all the other chick flicks available to me). The airplane was incredible: double-decker, personalized movie viewers, and you could view the take-off and landing from a camera attached to the tail of the plane...pretty sweet.

Nearly a zombie when we landed in Sydney, I protested inwardly to getting off one plane only to get directly on to another for the flight to New Zealand. Alas, the travel gods blessed me as the seat next to me was vacant and I had to ability to strectch out a bit. All in all, I had been in an airport or on a plane for something like 30 hours. Ugggggggghhhhh.

The ICE Veterans and especially the niche I have joined, in all their gloriousness, have been above and beyond helpful. Once we made it through customs in New Zealand, I saw the blue footprints (painted on the terminal sidewalk) that lead one over to the CDC (Clothing Distribution Center) where we are able to store our excess bagage that we don't need to access while in Christchurch. And after such a long time sitting and traveling by plane, the 10-minute walk over was heavenly.

At CDC, we were given our shuttle vouchers and shuttled over to our hotels. I am staying at a hip new hotel in downtown Christchurch called Hotel So. SOOOO FABULOUS. Talk about taking a trip into the future...the whole hotel feels like a futuristic version of a cruise ship; my room feels like a cruise ship pod. It is phenomenal. My room is equipped with what I would call a Boulder meets StarTrek lighting system. For the alarm clock, a sun-lamp (simulated sunlight) turns on very slowly over the course of 15 minutes before it reaches full light - which is designed to wake you up gradually. After the 15 mintues of sunlight, the Television automatically comes on to the "Wake" channel, which shows ocean and mountains scenes and plays soft soothing music. After having woken up in such a soft manner for the past three days, I can safely say it is divine. They also have programs within the lighting system that can help one adjust to the different time zone and reduce jet lag. Also in the room is "mood lighting" where one can select different colored lights to foster various moods, for example: red lighting for passion and love, purple lighting for relaxation and mental focus, green lighting for health and vitality, etc. And the room is designed to be hip, economical, functional and environmentally friendly. The bed, blanket and pillows make me feel like I'm sleeping in a cloud. Love, love, love it. Especially since it seems like I'm being totally spoiled before heading to the ICE (for your reference, I say ICE when referring to Antarctica, because there is a reason for all the acronyms, and although I don't have an acronym for ICE, it's just easier than typing Antarctica each time).

The Company staggers all the scheduled flights to the ICE because only about 120 people can fit on the military plane at one time. However, there has been a slight pile-up of people in Christchurch because the flights have been delayed over and over: once for weather, again for a mechanical issue, and so on, which is why we get to spend an additonal two days in New Zealand. I am told (by the rumor mill) that the first successful flight made it to the ICE yesterday. That means that my new flight to the ICE will be tomorrow morning, assuming that there are no weather or mechanical issues.

That's the update for now...think warm and successful ICE FLIGHT thoughts for me for tomorrow.