Home Again: Musings

I've been home in NC for nearly a month now, adjusting to surroundings that are eerily unchanged and constantly recounting my experiences and cultural knowledge for family and friends. I had imagined my return and tried to prepare for it, but as I have learned again and again, nothing prepares you for when you are actually in the moment.

My house, the cities I knew very well this time last year, and my family, are pretty much unchanged. It has been comforting to be around the house I grew up in, but that all is undone by discovering that I don't remember information that I used to know very well. I'm no longer Beltline-savvy and have absolutely forgotten where I put my DVDs in my room. The worst part was that I was genuinely surprised when I ended up being lost and confused! The brain is an amazing thing and if you don't use information for awhile, I've been told it's harder to retrieve. Accepting the reality that you don't know something anymore is even harder, because I feel that I still know it. Heck, it's only been a few months!

I knew that I had probably changed, as people do over time, but I can't help but feel that I am the same. Being plopped back into the same setting as if New Zealand never happened is an unsettling realization because so much did happen, both here and abroad! Another surprise has been how difficult it is to speak concisely about New Zealand. I have developed a few sound bytes for the question of "So how was New Zealand?" and "What was the best part?". Cramming the better part of a year's experiences into a short sentence yields a ridiculously unsatisfying result, especially for me. Talking about my experiences has also made me realize just how much of the culture I adsorbed. Though I get somewhat tongue-tied when having to sum up my adventure in a cordial manner to random neighbors, I almost am a geyser of facts and anecdotes for friends and family who are around for the weekend or longer. I certainly don't want to become that girl who compares everything to New Zealand, but I just can't help it sometimes.

The constant contrasts playing out in my life - same, but different, but still really the same; how do I talk about NZ, how do I not talk about it too much- are making me feel like I'm stuck on a topsy-turvy ride at the North Carolina State Fair. It's not all bad though. I admit, I love self analysis and this adjustment period gives me plenty to ponder. At my core I hold the basically same beliefs, goals, and desires. The experiences and perspectives that I have encountered over the last year are what have reaffirmed and/or added new insight to what I think and want to achieve. I am struggling with the reality that what I have seen and who I have met is only truly known by me. In a way, that makes those moments even more special and yet more challenging to share.

I won't be continuing my blog after this post. Dabbling in this area of media has been fun and eye-opening. Who knew how much pressure bloggers feel to post frequently? Or to post things that are quirky and cool? Having this outlet was a great way for me to practice organizing my ideas while giving intimate insight to my friends and family while real-time communication was difficult. Now I'm going to focus my efforts into my next big goal, catching up with people face-to-face, and sharing my Kiwi moments to those who want to hear them. Until next time...

Racing Towards the Finish Line- Wanaka 10k & Last Weeks in Dunedin

1. View from the lakefront in Wanaka 2. Two of my Flatmates and I at the finish line 3. Me pre-race start
   

Last weekend my flatmates and I packed up Glenda's car (so graciously on loan to me from the McConnons) and headed out to Wanaka, a larger town in Central Otago where many people in Dunedin have holiday homes. It's situated on this beautiful lake, flanked by mountains, and is known for being a great escape for skiing in the winter and the much warmer temps in the summer.

We set out early afternoon on Friday and despite a comedy of errors (me at the wheel, car sickness, trying to find dinner in the middle of nowhere, & faulty hostel phone numbers) we arrived in one piece. Race day on Saturday morning brought more stressful excitement (Um, where exactly is the start line?! and how exactly do we get back to the car??) but overall we couldn't have asked for more amazing weather or better race times! The race course itself wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, not the usual hills I deal with at all, though the roads were still open to traffic which made maneuvering tricky due to lack of shoulders along the roads. The last 500m was through grass, which wasn't my favorite, but with so little to go I didn't mind so much. This was my first competitive running race (unless we are counting the Krispy Kreme Challenge...and I'm not, haha) so I really had no idea how I would end up doing. I was a little nervous (not nearly as much as I was before my Macandrew Bay swim!) but by start time I felt really competitive and ready to put training to the test. I did notice I was putting a little more emphasis on where other people were instead of doing "my personal best," as my dad would say, so mid-way through I forgot about winning and more about how awesome it was to be running such a scenic course!

In the end, I ended up clocking in at 47 minutes 22 sec, which was cool, though I would have liked to do 45 minutes. I'd like to do some more 10k races and will definitely be seeking some out when I come home to NC. Ironically, a half marathon doesn't seem so far after doing 10k's haha. I think I am a long way from that...

I am officially done with work as of today (Friday)! I feel like I just started; to be this close to leaving is surreal. My coworker Annmarie made me a pumpkin pie from scratch and it was my pleasure to show everyone how Americans properly eat pumpkin pie--with ice cream of course! No one batted an eyelash at the fact it was 9am :) Most of the town is shutting down for Easter, and since I hadn't planned anything for the holiday, I'm hoping to do some planning, for my travels and when I'm home, and spend some quality time with the flatties. All good things must come to an end at some point I suppose, so although I feel sad to leave what has become familiar and fun, I really am ready to see what else is out there!

Hope y'all have a Happy Easter!

Post in Pictures: Central Otago Rail Trail

I spent this past Saturday and Sunday cycling along an old railroad track that runs through the warm and dry Central Otago region. The tracks were removed sometime ago and a few years back they opened up the old line for runners and cyclists. A co-worker of mine and I drove from Dunedin to Oturehua, stayed the night, and cycled 23 km to Lauder and back again to Oturehua the next morning. Most people do the whole trail in about 3 or 4 days, but I wanted to take it easy since I have my 10k race this weekend. I am sooo glad we didn't go far because my knees and bum were ridiculously sore by the time we got home. The landscape is so beautiful and peaceful; wide-open fields with these amazing rolling mountains. The pictures don't do it justice.

New Obsession: Taryn Simon

I've written about how much I love the Dunedin Art Gallery before, right? Well, I know I talk about it all the time, especially how I had been dying to go back and see what was new. The only thing stopping me was the weather. Well, last weekend was a breezy chilly 13 degrees so I holed up in the Gallery eyeing brushstrokes and reading the back stories to literally every piece in that place. I seriously love it there-- the set up and the wall colors, the mix of classic, modern, and absolutely crazy--it's inspiring. Plus the cafe next door is really yum. I ended up taking about an hour and a half on the first floor and upon climbing the stairs to the second, I was notified that a presentation about a particular exhibit was about to take place, followed by reflections relating to psychology and physical health inspired by the artist and her work. I really didn't know what I was getting into, as I hadn't even had a chance to check out the exhibit, but I decided to attend for the heck of it.

The presentation started with a 20 minute interview by the photgrapher Taryn Simon which can be seen here. I was totally blown away by how purposeful her pursuit of a particular image was. She spends most of her time arranging meetings and working through different levels of authority to get permission for the shoot to occur than actually getting the image. I was left feeling really intruiged about how she translates a current event or a feeling resonating within herself or the general population of the US into such specific images. In other words, how does she even find out that such places exist, while the rest of the population is so naive? She must spend ages doing research and following up on ideas that pop into her head. Apparently she is dating and/or is married to Gwenyth Paltrow's brother, so that must help in some respect. Either way, I definitely will be following her work. Have a look for yourself!

End to the Blogging Hiatus

Three posts in the month of Feb is totally mediocre. The weather has been entirely too awesome to sit around blogging about how fab the weather is. I've been spending the sunny hours out and about with my housemates, playing tennis, shopping, attempting to reclaim our tiny "backyard" from the overgrowth of clover and a rusted clothes hanger so we can sit out in the sun with a cold one. Typical evenings have everyone gravitating from the lounge to the kitchen and back again while we bake cookies, make dinner, have a 3rd consecutive mug of English breakfast tea, and get wrapped up in our latest movie rental. Now that class has started everyone is a bit busier, but not so much that we don't reconnect on the evenings and weekends. The last few weeks have been full of activities around town, especially with the beginning of Orientation week at the uni. My other female flatmate and I went to see the Royal New Zealand Ballet perform at the Regent theatre in the main part of town called the Octagon and were totally blown away! I've never seen ballet up close like that; the intricacy of their movements and costumes...it was amazing. A lot of bands have been doing shows as part of Orientation ("O") week, so my flatmate Chris and I went and saw the Mint Chicks play on campus, along with another friend's band Thundercub. It was SO nice to be back in the presence of live music, though I forgot my earplugs as usual, clearly the sound techs miscalculated the loud factor, and some freshie nearly vommed on us. I really miss going to KNC functions in Raleigh and hope to catch a few something-somethings when I come home. Dunedin has a bit of a cultural, alternative art/fashion scene going on and last week was the annual iD Fashion week. iD consists of various fashion events around the city, ie late night shopping, designer talks & meet/greets, and of course, fashion shows. It is becoming more renown around New Zealand, though I believe this might have only been it's 5th or 6th year. Since my flatmate is in the fashion design school at the Polytech here in Dunedin, we snagged student discounted tickets to the Emerging designer fashion show, complete with awesome goodie bag and the chance to ogle the brainchilds of young designers from Australasia and Europe. The main event is the iD fashion show, which is held at the Dunedin train station. The runway is set up along the breezeway with seats set up over the rails and even in train cars. The cheapest ticket was $45, and student tickets were all sold out, so I decided I'd stick to Emerging for now. The set up is such a cool concept, although the weather notoriously turns sour, with this year being no exception, causing everyone to be furiously gripping hot drinks. Only in Dunedin will it be 9 degrees at night and nearly 22 when you wake up in the morning. Either way, it was a great excuse to get dressed up and go out :)

The Regent Theatre; Me and the Runway; being silly after the show; iD Emerging Designers website

I've only two months left in this part of the world, which means that I suddenly will be having tons more to blog about. Ironic, perhaps, but this will be because I finally will be getting to travel around again! My job ends in about 3 weeks and then I'll be off and running to experience as much as I can before leaving. Next weekend I am hoping to do a part of this biking track called the Rail Trail with a coworker from the Uni. The trail runs where old train tracks used to be through Central Otago. It goes for at least 100 km, so we are only doing a small part, but the scenery, accommodation, cafes, and various artifacts from the railway system, ie tunnels and cool stuff like that, are supposed to make the experience awesome. I'm really looking forward to it!

The following weekend my housemates and I are heading out to Wanaka, the warmer, central town where most people in Dunedin retreat to during the summer, for our 10k & Half marathon races, respectively. I was aiming to do the half when I first arrived, but have since formally committed to the 10k, since I rely so heavily on walking as my main form of transportation. My calf muscles have been giving me trouble with all the uphill climbs I do on a daily basis just to get home and the additional strain of training makes healing tricky. I do want to walk off the plane when I arrive home, so I figured it was wise to ease off with the running and not get too carried away. My training runs have been going well and I'm feeling psyched to complete another race & to check out the popular holiday refuge for Dunedin residents. Oh, did I mention I was driving everyone there? That in itself should be a story.

I've been developing some pretty awesome ideas for my trip to Wellington, Nelson, Blenheim, and Christchurch coming up the second week of April, as well as my weeks in Melbourne and Sydney at the end of April. That is a major post in itself so I'll drag it out to a new one, if only so I can have two posts for March :)

Visual Update: The 5 Month Mark

I've hit the five month milestone of being in New Zealand yesterday. Flipping through my pictures, I've realized how much I've adjusted to living here-- I actually drove last weekend so that Jenna and myself could see the wildlife on the Peninsula (seals, penguins, and the like), I am a pro at air drying all of my clothes (we don't have a dryer, which is completely normal down here), I readily talked about snacking on ice blocks (i.e. popsicles) during afternoon tea break at work...the list continues. I'm starting to wonder about the adjusting I'll have to do when I come back home-- remembering to tip at dinners, haircuts, etc, stashing my purse in the trunk of my car so it doesn't get stolen, knowing that an item priced $4.25 is really more like $5 after taxes (tax is included in the listed price in NZ--what you see is what you pay!)...etc etc etc. I think I'll fall back into step easily...I have lived there my whole life so it should be natural, though it might take awhile to weed out some of the quirky expressions I've picked up :)


Say hi to my clothes horse/ Out on the Otago Peninsula / View from the road--as I was driving, heh



Macandrew Bay-site of the 400m swim / Running to Transition 1 / Post swim- success!

Golden Sunset on Macandrew Bay

Hello, world.

I didn't realize quite how MIA I've been until I starting getting "are you alive?" posts on my FB. I've gotten a little caught up in my own life lately so let me take a minute to fill everyone in!

My position in the HR department has been going smashingly. It's been such an insight into working in a proper office & at times I find myself smirking at the parallels between this office and the TV show The Office. I've never really had a position in an office setting, so I wasn't really sure what aspects were "real" and which were the products of good writing, but I've found that the supposedly little details, like desk placement or if your stapler is really cool, actually can make a big difference at work. My co-workers and boss are a really great group of people, a mix of Kiwis and foreigners, so I've been made to feel quite welcome. Our office is even participating in a corporate triathlon, for which we have three teams. I actually will be swimming the 400 meter open water for my currently unnamed team. I've never swum open water before, but have been outfitted for a wetsuit and all! The swim is going to be in this local bay that is quite calm, so hopefully it will be on race day. The atmosphere isn't too competitive but I mainly am concerned in FINISHING, haha, as this will be my first swim race since I was like, 10. I've been doing really well in my training so far, so wish me luck! The big day is on the 24th of Feb, after work unfortunately. I'll be lucky if I can get anything done.

The Flat life is good, great actually! See pic below of me baking some vegan vanilla cupcakes with chocolate icing. All of my flatmates have moved back to Dunnas and the student life around the city has picked up extensively. I'm typing away to the sound of dull base bumping- I could easily still be in U Suites :) It is Saturday night at the beginning of the school year, so I am not surprised, I actually expect it. Learning about the Uni system and other random things from NZers who are roughly my age at such an intimate level has been quite cool, though it's mainly just nice to have someone to chill with.



I have so much more to tell everyone but I've been delaying this post long enough. My friend Jenna is coming down this weekend for our farewell reunion before she heads home to the States. I can't believe she is already heading back for home- seems like we just met in Auckland. Anyway, hope this satiates you all for now!