Finding My Fix: Chronicles of a Travel Junkie

NZed PM Helen Clark spoke in the quad at the varsity today. (translation: New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark came to campus to speak to the students today). It was a nice change to watch politics in action from the OUTSIDE. I was given a Labour party bracelet, and guess what it says, and how it is spelled… “Labour.” Now is that great or what? I may be on New Zealand’s news tonight! If I am, I’m behind the guys in thongs, just so you know. Their election is on Saturday (I believe) so people are getting all rialed up. I’ve been approached by party members with flyers a few time. I really want one to come to me, and start trying to get my vote so I can tell him, “My vote is only good for one of two parties, and you don’t have either one here.”

Another interesting note… my accent has been slowly changing. I definitely sound American, but I catch myself on occassion pronouncing words or using word combinations that are unusual for Americans and quite common for Kiwis. The other day I pronounced “option” like “ope-tion” instead of like the more American sounding “ah-ption.” And sometimes my “e’s” and “i’s” invert themselves, which if you’ve ever heard a Kiwi say “my head hurts,” you’d know what I was talking about.

Observation: New Zealanders don’t say “bless you” when you sneeze.

HUGE change of plans. I’m not going to Spain next semester, I’ll be in NYC. I won’t be in the US within the timeframe to apply for my visa. Don’t worry it was an easy decision and I’m not sad that I’m making it. It’s a lot of travel and I’ve been worried it might be too much to do all at once, so I’ll just wait a year, save up a little more money and have an even grander time in Europe than before. In the meantime, I’ll get to hang out with the wonderful Americans I love! See you back in the states in about two months (three if I can change my flight without losing too much money).

-I think I ought to clarify that I am not stupid. I have streetsmarts. If I didn’t have streetsmarts I would never have survived living in Manhattan or working in the heart and soul of inner city Brooklyn. I have a good sense of boundaries between safe and unsafe in situations that call for it. I can tell when a person, place, or situation can’t be trusted, and finally, if I feel uncomfortable, I know how to get out.

-On a lighter note, it’s spring, and flowers are starting to bloom. The weather is gorgeous! Though, if one of you came here from the US today, you would probably disagree, because it is still a lot colder than the weather back home. But walking around in the sunshine (or the clouds today), or even at night is an enjoyable experience, even without a jacket. Hopefully I’ll have some more pictures soon (of Fiji, Wellington, etc).

-I spent all day yesterday hanging out with Camilla (Dane) who’s boyfriend had left early in the morning to go to Iowa after visiting her here for 3 weeks. It was lots of fun, even though there were some tears involved. But you can’t feel too sorry for her. She’s dating a good guy who came all the way to New Zealand to visit her. If I were to cry, it would be for the exact opposite reason.

-The All Blacks won Tri-nations!!!! They gave the Wallabees a good beating last night.

-I have bought plane tickets to Christchurch on Oct 22, and back from Dunedin Nov 3. I have an exam Nov 4, then I leave for Australia Nov 5. I need to buy a flexi-pass (a bus pass) so I can mosey around the South Island, maybe ski in the Alps, backpack in the Fiordland, and site-see in Dunedin. I’m a bit nervous that I’ll be traveling alone, so doing one of the Great Walks (3-5 days) in the Fiordland is out of the question unless I take one of the tours or get friends to go with me, otherwise I’ll stick to a day trip. I’m not such a fan of spending 3 nights in the wilderness by myself. Even if New Zealand doesn’t have any lions or tigers or bears, it has a lot of empty space, earthquakes, and glaciers. I may also take a trip to see the northern half of the South Island sometime between Oct 6 and 18, we’ll see how it works out. And I’m starting to wish I had more time to see Australia. Five days is enough to see Sydney, but that’s all it’s enough for. Oh well, I’ll just have to go back sometime.

-My final point is that I have let go of my stigma of Americans, and have started hanging out with more of them. Last night Caroline and I had a conversation with one guy. We had to agree that if he could survive first being made fun of for coming from a town in Minnesota with a population of 300, and then still make it out alive after a discussion on feminism, then he’s not a bad guy.

Katrina made the news here, though not in great detail. I hope all of my southern gentleman and bell friends are ok, and everyone else for that matter. Mal Mal how are you? I feel so isolated here, in a good way. It’s been all too easy to stop paying attention to the news. Everything seems so far away, like nothing can effect me here. There are no nuclear power plants, no nuclear warheads, very little pollution, no terrorism, relatively little crime, and aside from meningitis, no real disease threats. I have nothing to worry about but earthquakes, and I haven’t felt one yet. New Zealand is so far out of the way, that no one would really bother to spend the time, money or energy to attack it, save for maybe Australia, but unless we kick their butts in tri-nations rugby, they have no reason to attack. Maybe I ought to start reading the papers to prep myself for my return to the center of the terrorised world, our beloved nations capital, Washington, DC. I have a feeling it will be quite the culture shock.

I have to also say that I’m glad I went to Fiji. It’s a good place to retreat to when I zone out in the middle of lecture, as I did today. I was sitting around on the beach, cruising on the boats, and in general not paying attention to how encoding and retrieval interact in episodic memory experiments, until my friend asked me, “what did he say?”

“I wasn’t listening. I was in Fiji. Sorry.”

And one more note… I finally found a decent, and dare I say it, good cup of coffee here… at the cafe in the Maclaurin building on campus. New Zealand coffee doesn’t compare to Columbian or Costa Rican. But this cup was worth the NZ$3.60.

Jency informed me a couple of days ago that she ACCIDENTLY SMUGGLED a hermit crab into New Zealand from Fiji! I almost died laughing! Word of advice from Jency… when you pick up a shell, check to see who’s living in it.

Now that I’ve made it 2.5 months into my 15 month out-of-US travel expedition, I’ve decided I’m ready to settle down for a bit. I currently miss the US, NY, and Americans. Don’t worry I will complete my trip and I WILL enjoy it, all of it, but I have a feeling I will be ready to settle into a nice little apartment in NYC to carry out my last 2 years of study at NYU. I’m going to have to learn to stay put eventually anyway.

Pictures taken on the island hopping tour Read the rest of this entry »

Some pictures of us acting stupid on the beach… Read the rest of this entry »

This was the sunset on the third or so night of the trip… Read the rest of this entry »

We arrived back in Wellington about an hour ago, and I’m suffering from the post-vacation blues. I’m going to try something new… pictures first, stories to follow… Read the rest of this entry »