Can you feel it?

As the blue and yellow lights of the Los Angeles runway streaked by outside my row 66 window on take off Monday night, I started to get the most excited for New Zealand that I had been since getting my acceptance letter to the University of Otago.  I was lucky enough to sit next to an approachable and pleasant Canadian helicopter pilot, Paula, who made the 12 hour flight go by faster than expected.  The movies, complimentary lasagna, and the accents of the flight crew also helped. Sleep wasn't terrible.  It was pretty good actually for having my face pressed into a tray table all night.  And because the flight left at night and arrived at 8 AM its almost like it was all just a bad nights sleep, except for the swollen feet.  After landing, me and Paula went through customs and they cleaned her tent for foreign soil.  They were really concerned about keeping out foreign species of plants.  And animals too apparently after they found live scorpions in someone else's tent.  Walking out of the airport to the domestic flights terminal is when it really hit me where I was.  The most striking thing to me was the smell.  Hints of pine, ocean, and summer filled my nose with every deep breath of giddiness. Minutes after I arrived to my flat in Dunedin, I met my flat host Daniel Brown (another DB...we'll have to see if we can work this out)  and then took a trip to the grocery store.  If I hadn't just gone to the bathroom, I very well may have peed my pants once faced with the reality of being dependent on myself for food.  I think the low point came when I was standing in the grocery store staring at the produce with an orange, potatoes, and a head of lettuce in my basket; not exactly a solid meal.  I gave myself a pep talk and managed to buy and bring home enough to get me by for a couple days, when I can regroup and think clearly.  The feeling right now is very similar to my first couple nights at Iowa State.  Meeting all new people and trying to figure out where the heck I'm going. Except we didn't have sheep grazing on large rolling hills in Ames.  Most people living in my flat complex are Americans with the occasional Swede and Scot for good measure.  Everyone seems fun.  Welp, I better get up and moving.   The sun is shining and it's 62 degrees on the 17th of February and I feel motivated to take on the day with Michael Jackson's "Can you Feel It?" pumping through my headphones.  Yes, Michael, yes I can.