Future Plans Putting Me at Ease

I realize I have not posted in a while. I actually just received a text from a friend telling me it has been a week since I've updated and so here goes - even though it's 1am and I'm exhausted. I will update now so I won't need to tomorrow.

I have been working a lot, as usual. Over the weekend I worked 24 hours, between Friday and Saturday. Long days, I know, but I needed the hours since last week I have a number of short shifts. I have been working then every day since and the exhausting has been holding over, meaning I haven't done much outside of work.

I have recently been feeling rather lonely and unhappy here in Auckland. I have been getting really bored with my life - it has become too routine, too normal, too much like a life I could be leading back home. At first, when I arrived in Auckland, the normalcy was a wonderful relief from the constant change and uncertainty of a traveling lifestyle. I have now, however, gone too far in the other direction. My life consists of working and sleeping and doing nothing exciting on my days off. I decided last week that that needs to change and I have to start drinking less (as I would rather spend money on activities than alcohol), getting back out of the city more, and planning for my next stage of my world tour. I also spoke with my parents last week and they decided they will be coming in November instead of January - meaning I can now leave New Zealand in December instead of having to wait until February. The weather won't be quite as warm in November, and it may be a bit rainier, but they aren't all that interested in spending their days on the beach so it doesn't really matter. Looks like they'll be flying into Auckland int he first few day so November, we'll spend 4 weeks traveling NZ, they'll fly home back out of Auckland, I'll stay another week or two in order to finalize things here and sell my car and such, and then - off to ASIA!!!!! I really, just, can't, wait! I need to get back to my original goal of traveling through places very different from my home - not living in a place really similar to where I'm from.

Now having this plan has made me much happier. I know feel like the end is in sight, and I now have something to look forward to, a goal to work on, and it's making me quite happy.

Plus, in the last week I've started hanging out with different people from work as well and that's been fun. Saturday night I went out with Elizabeth (NZ) and Adrenda (Singapore) after work. Instead of hitting up the bars, we hit up the late night Chinese in Balmoral. We were there until about 3:30 eating dumpling and talking and laughing. It was such a nice change of pace - much more my real style - and I really enjoyed it. Last night, Monday night, we repeated this same thing but with many more people. (Photo coming soon.) It was so much fun - we were laughing and talking and eating. And although I was quite tired today, I was not hungover, and how nice is that! I really just need to remember that I'm not a big drinker - and that there are other people out there that are down to hang out late at night and not drink. Nice!

So now that my future is looking up I'm starting to briefly plan my net moves, and here's what it's looking like as of this very moment:

December 12th - NZ Visa expires, fly to Bangkok.
Week of December 12th - Spend in Bangkok, figuring out visas for all of SE Asia.
End of December - Head to Chang Mai spend some time there.
Beginning of January - head toward/into Laos.
Timeline now fuzzy but travel Laos and Cambodia at a somewhat relaxed pace, taking maybe 2-3 months at the most. After that, head to Vietman and spend months lying on the beach, getting a tan, riding a moped around, meeting people, reading books, and spending all the money I've earned! (Side note - my goal is to save $4000 NZD by the time my parents arrive. I can then hopefully get $3000 for my car and by the time I leave NZ will have $7000 NZD to add to my bank account back home. Wouldn't that be sweet!)

I'm sure this plan won't work out as stated above - as I now see how poorly I stuck to the last big plan - but I'm happy to have one again. It's nice to have a rough timeline, have new countries to look forward to visiting. I'm just feeling so much more relaxed, so much more, happy, so much more free - which is exactly how I want to feel on this trip.

And I'm sure now that I'm planning on leave so soon I'm going to start really making friends with people here in NZ. Up until now more of the people I know here have felt much more like acquiantences than friends. I don't have anyone I can really call if I'm having a bad day and need to chat. I don't have a go to friend I can my boring time off with. (I'm not throwing a pity party for myself here - just saying that I'm kind of alone here). But I'm sure now that I'm on my way out, I'm going to start really getting close with people, and I'll probably be crying when I leave.

Anyways, that's really all I've got. Here's a photo of Marijke (Holland) and me from last week's Monday night at BCC - when I got a bit too drunk. I wasn't too drunk in this photo, I just ended up too drunk by the end of the night. Photo quality isn't fantastic - dark place with a cell phone - but there we are.

Okay, I'm off to bed now. I have an action packed day tomorrow.

Oh one last thing, I went out for coffee and food with Ana (Peru) today before work. We were chatting and I just started thinking about how weird it is that I was sitting in Auckland having pizza with a girl from Peru. Have many decisions have both of us had to make along the way to bring us together in that pizza shop in Auckland. How amazing life is, isn't it?!