If you’ve been watching this space and wading through my various to-do lists, then you’ll know that I’m counting the days until my very cool trip to New Zealand. I’ll be leaving on a jet plane — something that I can’t say outloud with starting to sing that old Peter, Paul, and Mary song — on the morning of January 2nd. I’ll make my way from EVV to DFW to LAX where I’ll have a long, long layover before boarding a Quantas flight to AKL. I’ll cross the International Date Line somewhere along the way and land in the future!
Honestly, that might be the coolest part of my trip. I’ve already been to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich where I stood with my feet on either side of the prime meridian and I crossed the equator when I went to Peru a couple years ago. [1] That’s not too shabby for a girl who had never even had a passport until about 10 years ago.
But, the point of this blog entry isn’t to brag about my upcoming travels. Oh, no. The real reason behind this entry is talk about how grateful I am for the women who staff our University’s travel office. When I found a cheap-ish ticket to New Zealand last fall, they bought it for me, no questions asked. Today, when I dropped in and told them I needed a one-way plane ticket from Christchurch to Auckland, they bought it while I was standing in their office. They are also working on giving me an advance for my hotel rooms, per diem, and ground transportation. Let me tell you: this makes me a happy, happy camper seeing how my savings have been wiped out by new tires for The Coach’s car, a new furnace for the house, and air conditioning repairs (also for The Coach’s car.
So, kudos to the women of the travel office. You totally rock!