This weekend was great. I went down to New Plymouth with Kim for the rugby world cup game USA vs. Ireland. We knew USA was going to lose, but we had an amazing time anyway! Kim doesn't drive so I got to, which I kind of like here.
The drive down there was nice, we stopped in Raglan and hit up the beach and got some lunch. We picked up a hitch hiker who needed to get to the beach in Raglan. I have never done that before. Some German dude. It felt cool picking up a hitch hiker haha.
Then we had a bit of a sing along with Queen and Disney songs, since we didn't get any radio stations at one point. We finally got to New Plymouth and I was faced with my first couch surfing experience. HOLY SHIT-there was no couch..we got this gorgeous guest bedroom in this beautiful house on the water. The guy we stayed with supplied us with food and towels and he had a sauna and a hot tub. I was so spoiled...any couch surfing experience I have in the future cannot compare to this!
On Sunday morning, Kim and I went to a 911 church service with the USA rugby team. It was so cool to see those hotties up close. Later on we went to the game, face painted and all. I shouted and drank my ass off. USA lost, but we had an awesome time. The atmosphere was fantastic.
We met a group of guys from Galway, and a couple of guys from NZ and partied with them. It was a great dat/night. We headed home yesterday, giving Kim's Irish flatties a ride back to Auckland, stopping at an organic brewery on the way. All in all a great weekend. It was so nice to get out of Auckland for a bit.
This week or next will probably be my last week of work. I am excited because that means I will be traveling a bit soon!
October 14 I am headed to the south island for a Stray tour then I come back up to Auckland on the 25th (or something) for about a week and then I head to Melbourne Nov 2nd - 8th, and then on the 10th I go to Vancouver until the 14th! Then home! I am so very lucky my life is so eventful. However, for the next month I will be hanging out here...tying up loose ends and hanging out with some of the amazing people I met here. My time in Auckland is almost up. Its been a good run, but I am ready to get the hell out of here!
Cheers mateys!
Showing posts with label new zealand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new zealand. Show all posts
Monday, September 12, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
You can't have it all.
Where to begin. So much has happened in the last 5 months. I love New Zealand. My career is really taking off here. Of course I have had my moments when I was scared about money, friends, drinking too much, the American stereotype, missing home, missing family and friends, finding a place to live, and pretty much everything you can worry about. This is the biggest step I have ever taken in my life, so of course there is a lot of hurting, scariness and of course growing.
I have committed at least 3 years to living here. This will be a good step for my maturity, depth of meaning in my life, understanding of the value of money, understanding of the value of friends and family, etc.
This country is a beautiful place. People are friendly and I think since the country is so small, there is more of a sense of brotherhood. However, I am finding that even though people are friendly, it doesn't mean that they want to be my friend. I suppose you could say the same for a lot of cultures, so this is not the fault of NZ.
I have made 3 really good friends since I have been here. I have made several other friends, but none of which I call on when I am having a bad day. The hard part is that all 3 of my friends are transplants. Holland, France and Canada. This month I will be losing 2/3 of those people. One of which is my boyfriend.
Oh yeah, I finally want to tell someone significant that I've fallen in love with them and they're leaving in 4 weeks. Awesome timing. I never thought that I would meet someone who gets me, respects me, is intelligent and makes me laugh and who I find so attractive inside and out. I am so pissed that our relationship doesn't have more time to grow here. Of course, there is the possibility of a long distance relationship (which I swore I would never have). But I don't want to put stress on him and myself to keep in touch while we are both leading our busy lives thousands of miles apart. I have enough pen pals at the moment. I just feel like part of it will be, out of sight, out of mind" and we will slowly forget how incredible we are for each other.
I love him. I haven't said it yet. I am kinda waiting for him to say it, since I am afraid it will hurt too much if he doesn't say it back. That, and I want it to be said at the right moment because this is the first time I think I will truly mean it in the way they talk about it in the movies. Right now, at this moment, I can see sharing my life with him. I want to do so many things with him, simply cause my life is better lived with him than without him. He likes me for qualities that I want to be liked for and when I am having a bad day, just being near him lifts my mood exponentially. It's just so effortless being with him, and yet I think he makes me a better person without even trying. Fuck.
Hopefully my busy career/education will keep me busy enough so that I won't have time for loneliness. Get this, I just got a job teaching criminology to over 150 people starting the end of February. I have never taken a criminology course before, but I taught Soc of crime and deviance. I haven't read any of the course work yet, but I think it will be fine. I love getting up and performing in front of people, so I am sure I will make it work and they will love me. It will be nice to finally have somewhat of an income. Along with that, I am working on a research assistantship in the pharmacy department about the awareness and opinions of direct to consumer genetic testing in NZ. It is a pretty rad project which will get me published, so that's pretty neat. Oh, and of course, I am applying for my PhD here. Hopefully by next week I will have my application submitted. I am pretty sure the Soc department is pretty gung-ho to have me here, so that will be cool. I want to do it on consumer controlled medication due to Direct to consumer advertisement of pharmaceuticals and the vast amounts of medical information on the web. I wanna look at the discourse of diagnosis and ultimately the shift of doctor-patient relations. I hope they like my idea, if not, I hope they accept me anyway, cause PhD ideas are always changing anyway.
Woah this is becoming longer than anticipated. But, I feel a little better. Perhaps I should get on with writing in here more regularly.
Cheers!
I have committed at least 3 years to living here. This will be a good step for my maturity, depth of meaning in my life, understanding of the value of money, understanding of the value of friends and family, etc.
This country is a beautiful place. People are friendly and I think since the country is so small, there is more of a sense of brotherhood. However, I am finding that even though people are friendly, it doesn't mean that they want to be my friend. I suppose you could say the same for a lot of cultures, so this is not the fault of NZ.
I have made 3 really good friends since I have been here. I have made several other friends, but none of which I call on when I am having a bad day. The hard part is that all 3 of my friends are transplants. Holland, France and Canada. This month I will be losing 2/3 of those people. One of which is my boyfriend.
Oh yeah, I finally want to tell someone significant that I've fallen in love with them and they're leaving in 4 weeks. Awesome timing. I never thought that I would meet someone who gets me, respects me, is intelligent and makes me laugh and who I find so attractive inside and out. I am so pissed that our relationship doesn't have more time to grow here. Of course, there is the possibility of a long distance relationship (which I swore I would never have). But I don't want to put stress on him and myself to keep in touch while we are both leading our busy lives thousands of miles apart. I have enough pen pals at the moment. I just feel like part of it will be, out of sight, out of mind" and we will slowly forget how incredible we are for each other.
I love him. I haven't said it yet. I am kinda waiting for him to say it, since I am afraid it will hurt too much if he doesn't say it back. That, and I want it to be said at the right moment because this is the first time I think I will truly mean it in the way they talk about it in the movies. Right now, at this moment, I can see sharing my life with him. I want to do so many things with him, simply cause my life is better lived with him than without him. He likes me for qualities that I want to be liked for and when I am having a bad day, just being near him lifts my mood exponentially. It's just so effortless being with him, and yet I think he makes me a better person without even trying. Fuck.
Hopefully my busy career/education will keep me busy enough so that I won't have time for loneliness. Get this, I just got a job teaching criminology to over 150 people starting the end of February. I have never taken a criminology course before, but I taught Soc of crime and deviance. I haven't read any of the course work yet, but I think it will be fine. I love getting up and performing in front of people, so I am sure I will make it work and they will love me. It will be nice to finally have somewhat of an income. Along with that, I am working on a research assistantship in the pharmacy department about the awareness and opinions of direct to consumer genetic testing in NZ. It is a pretty rad project which will get me published, so that's pretty neat. Oh, and of course, I am applying for my PhD here. Hopefully by next week I will have my application submitted. I am pretty sure the Soc department is pretty gung-ho to have me here, so that will be cool. I want to do it on consumer controlled medication due to Direct to consumer advertisement of pharmaceuticals and the vast amounts of medical information on the web. I wanna look at the discourse of diagnosis and ultimately the shift of doctor-patient relations. I hope they like my idea, if not, I hope they accept me anyway, cause PhD ideas are always changing anyway.
Woah this is becoming longer than anticipated. But, I feel a little better. Perhaps I should get on with writing in here more regularly.
Cheers!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
New Chapter
I leave today for New Zealand. I have a year visa which terminates next July. I am SUPER excited. I will miss my friends and family a lot, but being there and exploring a new life is something I must do now. Life is a journey, not a destination.
I'll update again when I'm down under! :)
I'll update again when I'm down under! :)
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