Back in Detroit

Arrived back in Detroit at 11:52PM on June 30th with Lisa. I was so sad to leave Auckland and all my friends. I got so close to them and wish that I could have spent much more time together. Monday night I had a spaghetti dinner at my place because I had bought a kilo of spaghetti and two cans of sauce and needed to use them up. It was so nice! Lilian brought her ukelele, I had my mandolin, and James had his guitar. We played music and everyone remembered all of our fun times together. Later, James and Max sang John Denver's "I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane," but changed it to "She's....". I took a picture with each person and then a group of us went down to Father Ted's Irish Pub to see another group of international students (mostly German and Norwegian mates of mine). There was some great music and we played a little pool. I almost cried when I had to say goodbye to people. (I cried myself to sleep later that night).


I managed to be on the same flight from Auckland (to Fiji) to Los Angeles with my friend Collin, from Santa Barbara. We (Lisa, Collin, and I) had a 6-hour layover in Nadi, Fiji and kept our sanity by watching episodes of The Simpsons and Family Guy. On the flight from Fiji to Los Angeles I sat next to a guy who did study abroad in Australia. He's from Minnesota and actually goes to the university that beat Grand Valley State in the semi-finals of football last season - SMALL WORLD! Finally, after 30 hours of sitting on a plane and in airports, Lisa and I stepped off the plane.



Photo 1: From little trip to Mt. Victoria with Marius and Morten. Auckland City skyline - The City of Sails
Photo 2: Same little trip with Marius and Morten, but a different stop to One Tree Hill. A hill that had one tree but the Maori's cut it down and there was a monument put in it's place. Wish I knew a little bit more about it's significance, but that's the basic story.
Photo 3: One more walk to the Harbor.Photo 4: Becca and me at a Goodbye Party for our group of international friends. She's doing her Masters in Marine Science at UOA and has an interest in squid. She was a part of the team that caught that Giant Squid that is now on display in the museum in Wellington.
Photo 5: I'm pretending to be like Morten (right) at Father Ted's. I'm going to miss the Norwegians :(



...WILL ADD MORE PHOTOS SOON...
To all of my friends who I have met in New Zealand: I love you! You have created memories that will last a lifetime and I will miss you all so much. Thank you for being such great friends. I never thought I would get so close to so many people in such a short amount of time! If you're ever in Michigan, hit me up. If you come back to Auckland, I will see you on Queen St.

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