Serlin'

Auckland, New Zealand

We've been in Auckland for a few days, and we are busy learning how to sail ourselves a keel boat. As if I weren't pretentious enough what with my college ejikayshun and my fancy sunglasses. Now, I get to add expensive leisure sport to my spoiled white guy list.
It's been pretty cool, though. I've never really been actively sailing before (well, there was once, in a tiny Hobie Cat in Cancun. Thanks, Steve.), and it's eye-opening to actually experience how complex of a hobby sailing can be. I'm not sure if I would consider it "relaxing", since we seem to be spending most of our time leaning at a deep angle in the water, inches away from capsizing and a messy death. But, it is a challenge, and it's always fun to learn a new skill. Soon enough, I will have all of the experience necessary to repel a monkey pirate attack and deal with other such maritime dangers. But, until that time, I will let Susan do all the hard work, and then yell at me for sleeping on the job.

In other news, in two days time we will be boarding a plane flying from Auckland to Los Angeles, arriving eight hours before it left by going through the political wormhole more commonly known as the international date line. I haven't stepped foot in the US in over five months, so I imagine it might feel a little bit strange. Or, maybe it will just feel uncannily familiar, like going back to your parents' house, and finding your old room left exactly the way it was when you were last there. Maybe it will be hard to leave again. But, we'll only be there a little more than twenty-four hours, many of which will be spent sleeping. So, hopefully, we'll be off and on our way to Peru before anyone has found enough reason to chicken out.

And to all my LA peeps... see you at Margaritas.