landed

autumn in denver
springtime blossoms and me
cathedral square
the peacock fountain at the gardens
the spring fern at the botanical gardens
greetings from christchurch, nz!

we just got in an hour ago, it has been quite a long journey, but i have no complaints! we left from denver at 5pm on friday and it is now sunday at 3pm. the most exciting part of the trip was the amazing flight from la to sydney... we flew over on an almost brand new A-380!!!!!!! such a dream come true, for those of you who don't know, it is currently the largest passenger plane in the world, with a double-decker capacity of 450!!! it was a real treat, i have always enjoyed all sorts of air travel, and this was such a lovely surprise, as i've been following the saga of this particular aircraft. along the way one of the passengers got quite ill and thankfully there was a doctor on board who aided the woman, but, upon arrival into australia we had to remain on the plane until the 'quarantine police' boarded and deemed it safe for us to deplane, meanwhile we had a very short transfer time for our christchurch flight. it's raining here, which makes me want to relax in my room, but i think i should probably go out into the world so i can get on the correct schedule here! i am reporting at 9 am to receive all my cold weather gear for the ice, and then will have the remainder of the day to play! we are due to depart for mcmurdo tuesday morning, but may not make it then because all the ice flights are several days backed up due to weather and mechanical difficulties- so we are all secretly hoping for at least 1 extra day here in cheech!! i will be in mcmurdo until the 28th of oct. at the earliest and the 4th of nov at the latest... i will be there receiving training on the forks and other equipment, and it's too cold to fly to pole untill the end of the month anyway!!! i am very excited about this, for many reasons... i've never really spent any time at that station and i also have lots of friends working there this season that i would probably be unable to visit with otherwise!! the only problem is that i don't know where i'll be spending halloween.... and i don't know where to ask dad to send my costumes!!! this is currently my largest dilemma ... poor me!!! well, i'm off to play in the rain and find some yummy sushi for dinnner!!! thank you to everyone who helped me to make this voyage possible, especially my mom, dad and karl!!! hope you all are doing well wherever you are!!! take care, more soon!! karengrace*

***a special big love shout out to sabrina!!! sending you all my love from down under!!********