On Saturday (in NZ), we left from Carol's place at about 8am in order to make what we thought was a 10am flight. Fortunately, Carol only lives like 15 minutes away from the airport so it wasn't a long drive and we weren't in a rush. On the drive to the airport, I told her about the difficulties I had with ANZ during my first few days in New Zealand and she told me that I should have told her about it and she could have possibly got it straightened out for me in country (it did get straightened out, but back in the states where banks actually TRY to help you). She did understand my frustration and let me know that I wasn't just overreacting to the situation – some people just have poor customer service skills. It did give me some sort of closure on that very unpleasant chapter to my New Zealand trip – hopefully one day all the banks can get on that fancy internet deal and get connected to each other like the rest of the world.
So we arrived at the airport terminal at about 8:10am and when we walked in the Air New Zealand line was just crowded with a ton of people – I was not looking forward to moving slowly in that line. But when we tried to enter the line (called a queue in this neck of the woods) they told us that they were not checking in passengers for Samoa yet so Josh and I had to find somewhere else to go for about 20 minutes before they would check us in. We got some tasty (and affordable) breakfast at McDonald's and then came back to the line to check-in. The line had dropped down considerably when we returned and we were checked in within about 10 minutes of getting in the line – now that's customer service! So after going through the customs/security area (which unlike the Queenstown airport actually had security at the area when we arrived) we headed to a lounge area where we got our first glimpse of the Australian edition of Sportscenter (it just started airing on Monday) and for the most part it was just like Sportscenter back home except focusing more on sports/stories that interested Australia/NZ (i.e. cricket, rugby and the Australian Open) – there was a small blurb about the NFL games on Sunday (but something tells me that's nothing compared to the coverage it's getting on the US edition of Sportscenter). While it was nice to have SC, hopefully we'll still get the US Sportscenter from time to time just so we're up to date on the US side of things (i.e. college sports which Aussie SC probably won't cover). Now while we were waiting for our flight, it somehow got delayed (even though the plane was sitting at the gate the entire time) and we didn't board the flight until 10:30am – we didn't actually leave NZ until 11:30am so we were an hour and a half late with no explanation. The weather was great in NZ and while it was raining in Samoa, it wasn't bad enough to cause a delay. So no idea why that happened but I was hoping our ride in Samoa knew about the delay.
Josh and I requested to have the emergency exit row seats so that we could have a lot of leg room for the long trip home and we actually got those seats (just like the flight to NZ, it wasn't a packed flight). This flight was very similar to the plane we came over on when we first arrived in Samoa in Oct 2005 – so it was kind of interesting being in a plane that's used for a 10 hour flight on a flight that's only 3.5 hours long but it had a nice perk that our LA-Samoa flight didn't have: you got to pick your own in-flight entertainment. Unfortunately, I didn't get to watch a Jessica Alba flick on this flight but instead chose to watch the movie 'The Departed' and Josh watched 'Pirates of the Caribbean 2' – this was great that we both got to watch films we hadn't seen yet on our flight. Unfortunately, I was 4 minutes away from the ending of the movie when we began our descent into Apia so I have no idea how the movie ended – guess I'll just have to fly again to find out.
When we arrived in Samoa, the rain was coming down pretty hard and created a very grey environment for us to arrive in. It was a lot better then our first arrival into Samoa where you couldn't see anything under the cover of darkness – we're getting better. I took in as many breaths of the cool controlled air inside the airplane before stepping out into the humidity of Samoa and when I took the first step out – the humidity engulfed me like a shark! It was like shrink wrap coming over my body, I almost tipped over a bit it was so overwhelming. Fortunately, the humidity made the rain not so bad but my clothes just soaked it all in like it was nothing. One of the great things about the Samoa weather, though, is how it prevents dry skin. While over in NZ, my skin was as dry as it would be back home and it was a weird feeling to have dry skin after being away from it for a year. But in less then 30 seconds of being back in Samoa, my skin was nice and wet again – I don't know what you would call it, but my skin definitely wasn't dry and it was good. As fast as things went when we were in NZ airports, picking up our bags from baggage claim seemed to take forever – we were now officially back on island time. Once we picked up our bags and went through customs again, my friend Zonder (the same one who took us to watch NFL games in NZ) was there to pick us up and give us a ride into town. It's good to have friends on both islands!
Coming back into Samoa, it definitely felt like home this time. Like I was going back to a place where I could be settled and start getting down to business – it was definitely a nice feeling to have because as they say, the best part of any vacation is returning home. The first place we went was to the Peace Corps office to drop Josh off and pick up my mail. Boy did I have a lot of mail waiting for me when I got back – it was awesome! I felt so loved and missed – my arms were just overflowing with letters and packages, what a great return to Samoa! Zonder then dropped me off at home where I began the process of decompressing (and promptly took a nice cold shower to rid me of those wonderful memories of hot showers in NZ!) and unpacking. Everything was in good condition when I came back (and the laptop survived the humidity – thank goodness!) and now I am just enjoying the last bit of my vacation before I start working again tomorrow. One thing that did change while I was gone – at some point, someone painted the outside of my FaleSamoa with a new coat of white paint. Kevin was opening a chapel up downstairs, so I'm guessing that they finished it while I was gone. I have a feeling that things are going to start coming at me at a mile a minute once I decide to jump back into the Peace Corps Volunteer pool. I think I'll stay out for just a few more hours! I've got a ton of pictures I need to sort through so you can see all that I've written about – it'll get done, no worries mate!
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