Come Together

Well the verdict is in people and it's a doozy. Is that how you spell "doozy"? Who knows.

After about five weeks of living in Christchurch I am leaving.

Haha, no just kidding. I'm not leaving, but there are a lot of changes being made here. The first big one is that I'm moving out of my flat. Finally. Let's put it this way, the extremely conservative and overshadowing chauvanistic attitude of my male flatmate has really put me off from living in the current shithole that I'm living in. My girl flattie is amazing but sometimes you just gotta cut loose. So I've found a really REALLY cute little place in a nicer area called Ilam with two couples (again I'm living with couples...ahhh!! hehe). But they are very cool. One of the girls is a soc major so her and I have stuff to chat about (we spent an hour last night discussing culture change), the other girl is a pysch major and a boxer and seems pretty chill. The two guys seem nice as well and I think the girls are kind of running their shows anyway, so it is all good there. The house is adorable, and my room is quite nice. It's all blue and it has a nice big window that opens into the front lawn (which also means part of the street but we have a big fence so you really can't see the street anyway). We have a big, CLEAN kitchen, the bathroom is kind of small but whatever, and we have a HUGE window spanning the entire wall in our living room that overlooks a little stream with flowers and duckies and stuff. It is really nice and really peaceful. And I am very excited. It is right near the pool where I am joining the swim team, so early mornings won't be too hard and the people there seem to be the type that will become fast friends. Woohoo!!!

On top of THAT change, I think, that after much milling over the subject, that I am going to take this new job 35 minutes outside the city. It is a ways to travel but the people are willing to pay me major bank to essentially run their biz. I would only have to work 20 hours, four days a week, and i could add more hours if i wanted. the whole point of my being here is to travel AND work, not just work, and that is all i've been doing. This will give me the chance to make plenty of money to travel (to shop for cool kiwi things) and to just have freedom to play and swim and bike and enjoy this country.

I have met some cool people that I am very excited about. Victoria who is like my twin, we have such fun together and get along really well. She swims and I think I may start swimming with her in mornings. Julia that i've mentioned before, she is fantastic and she's going to teach me to drive standard with my left hand. Cord the canadian who swims is a cool guy, still don't know why they call him "Cord" though. I will figure it out someday. And then there are the girls i'm moving in with..plus i will of course keep in touch with erin and spend time with her (away from her boyfriend if at all possible.) For the first time in a weeks I woke up with a feeling of control, certainty and comfort, glad to be walking down this shithole street to buy a carton of milk(with the knowledge that it was one of the last times i would have to do that).

SO those are the updates on life. I am planning my xmas celebrations which is hard to do being away from home but it's coming together. I know I will not be alone on xmas, there are lots of offers to spend xmas eve with people, xmas day and i think i am going on a bike trip to otago with the people i work for at the childcare center for a few days after christmas day. bike, camp, bike, camp, bike, camp...sounds like such fun and it makes me appreciate my mountain bike a TON now.

I may be doing a triathlon next sunday but that could easily change. it has been hard to train lately bc i have been really focused on fixing things in my life...no not fixing, just changing. i need to remind myself that nothing in my life is ever broken, it's just constantly changing because I am constantly changing. I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I have recently become kind of proud of what I'm doing here and extremely proud that I am strong enough to stand up for what I believe in and change things when I don't like what is going on. Change can be a big risk, coming here has proven that, but it is all worth it in the end.

Lesson learned this week: Never remain in a situation you are unhappy with. Never think "well it could be worse, so i'll just put up with it." It may take a lot of effort to make changes, but once they are made, you will be that much more the happier (and wiser) for it. Plus, if things DO get worse, you can always change again. That is the power that each of us as human beings has. The power to control and change our lives and situations. I'm not saying that if I wanted to go from being a low-income traveller to a rich kiwi citizen I would be able to do it, but within my realm of life I have lots of room to move. Opprotunity really is everywhere if you just look for it.

That is all for the day kiddies. Miss y'all (i say that a lot now and it's bothering me bc i'm def not from the south! haha).

-Nicole