So I would first like to start out by addressing all of the
wonderful and inquisitive e-mails/texts/blog comments/etc. that I have
received recently from everyone. I appreciate your interest, it’s great to know
that you all care. In response, I would like to say I have not posted on my
blog in quite a while for 2 reasons. 1) I am out of the habit. 2) Now that I
have been living and working in Auckland for 7 months, nothing interesting is
happening to me right now. I go to work 5 days/week, I pay bills, I see the
same friends when I’m not at work and we do rather “boring” city things. They
aren’t that boring to me, as they are my friends and my life, but it wouldn’t
be all the interesting to you as we are simply doing things like exploring
Auckland, going to our same favorite breakfast joint over and over again, going
on walks around our favorite neighborhoods, just normal life things. With that
said, I will now do a high level recap of what my life looks like on a regular
basis so you can know what I’ve been up to recently and then I’ll tell you
about what’s coming up.
My life over the last 2 months or so has turned into a very normal life. I am working somewhere
between 40 and 60 hours/week and in my days off I usual spend time going out to
eat with friends at “Cheap Eats” restaurants around Auckland. Before work 2-4
days/week Elizabeth and I go to our favorite café, Cereal Killa, on Dominion
Road where we have the same coconut porridge time and again. We are obsessed
and we’re okay with that. We spend about $60/week on porridge but we enjoy the
food and we have a good time together. On this, I at time think that spending
all this money on coconut porridge is quite ridiculous, especially considering
this is something that I could quite easily make at home for probably like
$3/day but I can see that I am not only paying for the food but paying for the
experience. It is so nice that only 10 months after leaving America I am now a
regular at a café on the other side of the world. They know when I walk in what
I want to eat, they remember me, and I have this great routine with a great
friend. It’s so nice to see that I was able to establish a sense of normalcy so
quickly.
This now brings me to an interesting topic – I’m really
starting to get sad thinking about leaving Auckland. Elizabeth (Australia) ,
Helene (Belgium), and I were talking about this just yesterday. I am quite sad
to leave Auckland and all the amazing friends I have made here for 2 reasons:
1) I truly enjoy the company of all of my friends here. They are amazing and I
am very sad to think I may never again see many of them. 2) Even if I were to
return to Auckland most of them wouldn’t be here in the future. They are all
here semi-permanently but even if I came back in 1 year, at least of few of the
friends I have here that I love so much will be gone. I am trying to really
appreciate having them all here in one place now because this won’t last for
long. I’ll be leaving soon and slowly they will all leave as well. After that,
this great little thing I have going here in Auckland will be over. I guess I
should be happy to think that I’m the 1st of my good friends to
leave – much better than being the last – and I just have to remember to savor
these last few weeks I have in this great, but temporary, life that I have
right now here in Auckland. The people that I enjoy spending my time with more
than anyone (Elizabeth, Ana, Julie) are all on their way to bigger and better
places, just like me. It’s great for everyone but sad at the same time.
Back to what else I’ve been up to…. Coconut porridge at
Cereal Killa, going to the top 100 Cheap Eats places in Auckland, going to
work. Really that’s it. So on the Cheap Eats… Metro Magazine here in Auckland
compiles a list of the top 100 Cheap Eats every year here in Auckland. (For
those on you in MPLS, Metro Magazine is just like the Minneapolis St. Paul
Magazine. They also do the restaurant awards for the top restaurants in the
city.) When I first came to Auckland I would find interesting sounding
restaurants on this list and then drive to them – no matter where they were in
the city – and this is how I learned how to get around Auckland so well. A few
weeks back they released the new list for this year and we are now trying to
get to as many as we can before I leave Auckland. We have a top 36 list. I
don’t think we’re going to get to all of them but we’re having fun doing it.
The “we” I keep referring to is Elizabeth and I. We both have Wednesday and
Thursday off each week so we have recently been organizing with everyone else
who is off these days as well so there is now a big group of us going for lunch
about 2 times/week. It’s fun. Although the goal seems stupid to most people I
talk to, I have now found that having a goal is really all that’s important, no
matter what it is. It gives me something to worry about, something to focus on,
something to achieve. I spend almost all of my disposable income on eating out
but to me this is better than buying clothes, or getting my hair done, or
whatever. I am making memories with my friends that I will have forever. I have
really learned Auckland city and I can now say that I have eaten all sorts of
different cuisines that I ever had before. And, I spend so much of my time away
from work with my friends do something I enjoy – eating! It makes me happy and
that’s really all that matters.
Plans for the future – so my parents are coming in just over
6 weeks and I can’t believe it’s now upon us. For so long it has felt like it
would never come and now they will be here before I know it! Between working
and eating out my weeks now fly by and pretty soon they will be here, my time
in Auckland will be over, and then as soon as they leave my time in NZ will be
over.
Plans for my trip with my parents:
Because there are so many beautiful places to see in NZ, we
will be spending almost no time in Auckland – 1 night on their way into the
country and one probably just one night on their way out. The night they
arrive, November 1, is the night of Lorde’s first big concert in Auckland and
the last concert of her world tour. I bought tickets, we are going, and it’s
going to be an amazing (and very “NZ”) start to their trip. During the month
they are here we will drive from the very top to the very bottom of NZ. We are
going to do an overnight on Doubtful Sound on the bottom west coast of the
South Island. We are going to take a helicopter tour of the mountians, we are
going to hike on the glaciers, probably take a biking tour of some amazing
vineyards, hopefully go skydiving for my father’s 60th birthday, go
on a mussle barge, visit lots of my customers and friends around NZ. It’s gonna
be a great 4 weeks! Relaxing at time,
full of adventure at others, FULL of outdoor activities! It’s gonna be just
amazing! CANNOT WAIT!
So they are here from November 1 – November 26. Three days
after they leave I am going to Samoa for 1 week with Ana (Peru). We got
together the other night and made a list of all the tings we want to do while
we are there. I don’t have the list with me but I’m going to try to remember as
many of them as I can, here goes:
-swim with the turtles
-swim in a lagoon (I’m not sure that is actually what it’s
called but that’s what I’m going with. What I mean is on of those little pools
you find in the middle of the forest in tropical places when you can jump from
the cliffs down into these pools of beautiful clear water)
-get really drunk
-drink the local alcohol
-eat a local tropical fruit
-get a tattoo (on our ankles)
-spend a night at a local person’s house
-spend a night in a fale (traditional huts on the beach)
-visit the Annabelle Inn
-go to the local market
-learn a local craft
-go on a boat ride
-go to another island (Samoa is made up of many islands – 2
main islands and other smaller islands)
-hitchhike somewhere
-rent bikes and go on a bike trip
-get a tan
That’s all I can remember right now but we’re both super
excited. Some of these are obviously very easy, other more difficult, but at
least having this list will encourage us to be busy every day and take every
opportunity that comes our way. We are going to pre-book accommodation for the
first night but them just wing it after that. We are both so excited; it’s
going to be great! We are going to be in Samos November 29th –
December 5th. (It’s Ana’s birthday on November 30th so we’ll
be there for that – awesome!). When I first told my father I was going to Samoa
he thought I meant I was going there to stay (or at least not for holiday) and
now I’m thinking I might not come back. My visa in New Zealand ends on December
12th so I’ll only be coming back for 7 days. Hopefully I can sell my
car before I go to Samoa and then I’m just going to leave all my stuff packed
up with a friend and $100. If I decide not to come back from Samoa they can
just ship it to me. The ticket only cost about $400 return so if I don’t come
back I’ll only be out about $200. I can stay there longer if I want, or just
catch a flight out of Samoa to Asia and then just keep going form there. We’ll
see.
It’s so weird not having any plan for my future. I literally
have nothing planned! It’s so crazy!
I can only stay in NZ until December 12th and I have no idea where I’m
going to go after that. I haven’t been able to purchase a ticket – I just haven’t
been motivated enough – and I haven’t really been bothered by that at all. I’m
really just enjoying not having anything I need to do or anywhere I need to be.
It’s so awesome just being free to do whatever comes up, whatever I want,
whenever I want. If I do come back to NZ after Samoa I may just go to the airport
on December 12th and buy a ticket to anywhere and just go with it.
Who knows! I also think I’m a bit hesitant to buy a ticket to somewhere because
of really like my friends here, I don’t really want to leave them. I’m not in
love with NZ, or with my job, but as I learned in Coromandel and as I’m
learning again here in Auckland, it’s all about having great friends. If I have
friends I love somewhere, I can really live anywhere and be happy there.
Okay, I think that’s enough for this blog post – I hope that
satisfies you all. I’ll try to start writing again a bit more regularity but I just
can’t promise anything right now as I’m living a rather normal and “boring”
life.
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