Confusing Things About American Elections

In case you've been living under a rock for the past year or so, you may have noticed that the US election finally took place on Tuesday. I'm sure those of you overseas heard less than me, but likely still more than you really wanted to. It was all really rather baffling, and made me much more appreciative of our own electoral system, which certainly has its problems, but not nearly to the same degree.

I'll try to stay out of the politics of the whole thing, as much as is possible, and more add my general thoughts on the overall process. Perhaps a list?

Things that baffle me about the US elections:

How long they take. I know it's a much bigger country, and thus requires a more complicated system, and more time, but good lord this thing seemed to drag on forever! The campaigning for the Republican primaries started well over a year ago, with the first Republican debate being held in August 2011, and the constant media coverage hasn't ceased since. In late April Mitt Romney was finally declared as the Republican candidate (yes, I am looking this stuff up on Wikipedia), and the full out campaigning from both sides started.
For those Americans following along, in New Zealand we don't really have big competitions on who is going to lead each party, whoever is the current head of the party is the person who will eventually become prime minister, should their party get elected. We always know when it's an election year, but the general advertising and media coverage generally starts a month or two beforehand, rather than a year or two.

The amount of money spent. Again, I know it's a bigger country, and thus more money is going to be spent, but goodness those numbers look big. According to the New York Times, the Democrats spent $852.9 million, and the Republicans $752.3 million. And that's just the party spending. Outside corporations also spent a hell of a lot. The estimate of total spending by everyone on this election is somewhere around $6 billion! There's no limit on the amount of money they're allowed to spend, and big companies are allowed to donate huge amounts of money to candidates, thus giving corporate giants a fair amount more control in these elections than I think they should have.
In comparison, National was the only party in the 2011 New Zealand election to spend over $2 million, and there are limits on the amount of money each party is allowed to spend.

The electoral collage. This is the system they use for counting the votes, and deciding who gets to be president. (The fact that there is even a separate vote just for the role of president kind of confuses me, too) Basically, there are 50 states, and because each state has varying numbers of people, they get varying amounts of seats in the house, and are worth different numbers of elector votes. There's 538 electors all together, so a candidate needs 270 of them to win the presidency. California, for example, is worth 55 electors, because there are so many people living here, whereas somewhere like North Dakota, a state with very few people, is only worth 3. The thing that I find odd, is that each state works as a kind of lump sum. So even if 51% of California voted Democrat, and 49% voted Republican, all 55 of those electors would go to the Democrats, regardless of the fact that nearly half of them did not vote that way. This means that occasionally the person who becomes president may not be the person that the most people voted for. It's happened four times so far, I think. Last time being Gore vs Bush Jr. Gore had the popular vote, but Bush won the electoral college, and so got the presidency.

The parties involved. There really aren't any minor parties hugely involved in the US elections. That's not entirely true, but with the system the way it is, they really aren't given the time of day. The candidates from the smaller parties are pretty much dismissed by most people. Including the two main candidates, who don't even allow them into the presidential debates. There was a debate with the leaders of the minor parties, but very little was said about it, and I don't know of anyone who watched it. A vote for any minor party is essentially a vote wasted, as it's highly unlikely any of them will win any position in government, which I think is rather sad, as some of them have some very good points. Some of them are also a little horrifying, mind.

How few people vote. In the election on Tuesday, approximately 57.5% of all eligible voters actually went to the polls and voted. It kind of astounds me that so few people don't read up on the issues and cast a ballot. If that remaining 42.5% of people did vote, I imagine the results of the elections would be vastly different. I understand that some people may not feel like any candidate represents their views, or that their vote really won't matter, because they don't live in a swing state (Many states are always going to go one way. For example, California is going to turn out Democrat, and Texas will pretty much always go Republican, whereas somewhere like Florida or Ohio could go either way. These are called swing states.), but there are still a lot of other issues on the ballot that are much more local, and the individual votes count on much more. Contrasting that, the turnout in NZ has been steadily decreasing (sad, that), and was at a record low last year, at 74.21%.

How difficult it is made for voters. Maybe I'm less surprised by how few people vote when I hear about how difficult it can be made for them. In Florida on Tuesday, there were people who had to wait in line for seven hours to complete their ballot. I'm not even joking. Seven hours. To vote. I really have no words to convey how appalling I find that. And while that's the most extreme, it still is not at all uncommon for people to have to wait well over an hour to be able to vote. What the actual fuck? (Sorry Mum) Considering the fact that a large percentage of the population doesn't even vote, the fact that this has not been sorted seems completely ridiculous to me. I know that some of the ballots have a lot of various local issues on them that need to be voted on, and it can take people a little while, but still. Kind of makes you think that someone doesn't want people voting, but I'll bite my tongue, and spare you the extended rant. There's several other laws and various bullshit (again, sorry Mum) around voting that make it harder for some people to vote, and I'm sure skew the system a fair bit, but I'm not well enough educated on the issues, and I'm sure doing my research will just make me angry, so we'll leave it there.

Which issues are considered important. I know everyone has different opinions on things like this, and once again, big country has different priorities, but there were a few things I was saddened to find are still considered fairly controversial, and a few things that I noted were missing altogether from the coverage I saw of election shenanigans. For example, employers being able to decide if their employees can have affordable access to birth control or not should, in my opinion, not even be up for debate. Ditto a fair few issues to do with healthcare and so called women's issues (Because clearly men don't care. Only these silly women who want such ridiculous things like equal pay, or *gasp* the ability to decide what happens to their own bodies), but I'll try to keep my personal opinions at bay, for the most part. I do, however, find the people who vowed to move to another country if Obama won fairly amusing. If they don't want universal health care, I reckon this map can help them find a country to move to.
There was much more debate on foreign policy than I expected, although I guess that shouldn't surprise me, considering the global superpower that America is. Plenty of talk on the economy, a bit on education, but something that I don't remember hearing anything about was the environment, which kind of surprised me. Maybe things like that shouldn't surprise me, but I still would have thought there'd be some kind of talk about clean energy, reducing emissions, and all of that good stuff. I like to think that America in general cares about that sort of thing, but maybe I'm just being too hopeful.
I also find the amount of time spent on portraying the other guy as a terrible person rather sad. Surely if your argument is the best, then you can stand on your merits, rather than the other guy's weaknesses. I know this happens across the board in politics, but the amount of hatred for the other candidate, from the general campaigns, and just people you talk to, is higher than I can ever remember it being back home. Nobody is inherently evil, and everyone wants the best for their country, and solidly believes that they are doing the right thing. We may not always agree on the best ways to make this world a better place, but just because someone disagrees with you, does not mean they are an awful person. It's a pity our political leaders don't always set a particularly good example in that regard.

So yes. Elections are weird, and I am very much looking forward to not hearing about them as much in a few weeks' time. A few great things did come from this election. Four states legalised gay marriage, and another three said no to measures that would ban it, and the first disabled woman, the first Asian-American woman, and the first gay woman were all voted into the house. Good job to America!

Thoughts On Halloween

This past Wednesday happened to be Halloween, a holiday that is apparently second only to Christmas in consumerism levels in the US. Something of a big deal, apparently. The average person supposedly spends $80 on decorations, candy and costumes! Per person! Crazy.

Last year I got off fairly lightly, as the kids were staying with their dad, and doing the whole trick-or-treating thing there, while I was off at OpenCircle for the night. This year I got to experience the full thing. As far as the being put in costume and going house to house asking for candy side of things go, at any rate.

Monday was a teacher only day, so my costume was crafted for me that day, out of a pair of my old jeans that had torn in an unfortunate place and been rendered unwearable, and a top we picked up for ten bucks from Target. It was decided that I was to be a zombie, a role which I took very seriously, and spent the evening stumbling towards unsuspecting victims, with my arms outstretched, and calling for their delicious, delicious brains. I also reminded myself why I avoid make up, and do not tease my hair on a regular basis.

This is what I ended up looking like,

after they were finished with me.

Then came the actual trick-or-treating part of the evening, which I found entirely odd. Having never been before, and feeling like I was not exactly in the same demographic of usual trick-or-treaters, I was fairly uncomfortable with the general idea of going up to a stranger's house and asking them to give me free candy. I went a few times when dragged, but mostly held back and watched the kids have their fun, once I had enough to be snacking on.

Goodness did they get a lot of candy, too! The three not-so-blind mice and eighties punk-rocker each had a pillowcase, that was at least a quarter-filled with sugar by the end of it. When we got back to the house and they all poured out their haul, the mounds of chocolates and lollies were astounding. I had enough of a sugar crash on the small amount that I had!

My host mum stayed back and held down fort at the house, and from the sounds of things, we gave out possibly more candy than we brought in! Nearly two hundred kids came to our house! Two hundred! This country continues to baffle me.

I think one of the things that I find most strange about the whole thing is that on any other day of the year, kids are explicitly told that they should never go up to strange houses, and especially not to take candy from strangers. They have this whole thing about not letting kids eat anything that wasn't pre-wrapped in a factory, too. Fear of roofies and razor blades and all. I guess it's good to be safe, and I'm sure the paranoia comes from actual instances of this happening, but it still seems a little much to me. A ploy from the big candy companies to make more money by stopping people from making cookies or their own confectionery.

Maybe I'm just a killjoy. I will admit that it did seem like a kind of interesting way to get to know your neighbourhood a little better, and the level at which some people get into it is kind of amazing. Houses had graveyards on their lawns, fancy lighting, spider webs everywhere, and many, many carved pumpkins. Including a pumpkin that I carved! Something that I did find incredibly fun, and will one day master the art of doing something really awesome. Mine ended up turning into a rabbit, for reasons still unknown to me. 

 They did look rather cool all lit up at night.

A Weekend Away

This Friday, in celebration of our one-year anniversary thingamywhatsit (A year? How did that happen?) David and I took a trip down to the incredible National Parks of King's Canyon and Sequoia.

Having visited around ten of America's National Parks, I must say that each and every one of them is truly spectacular, in their own unique way. I'm very definitely of the opinion that if you visit the US, the big famous cities are nice, but it's the National Parks that you really have to see. These two are no exception.

We were camping in King's Canyon, and arrived a little later than planned, thanks to the ineptitude of Apple maps, and some of the thickest fog I've ever seen. There is definitely something quite fun about setting up camp in the dark, and then emerging from your tent in the morning, to discover the true wonder of where you are staying. There were trees well over a hundred feet tall and insanely wide, and the loos weren't nearly as far away as they had seemed in the unfamiliar darkness.

We started with a wander to see the second largest tree in the world, the General Grant Tree, which is by no means the tallest in the world, but the second largest by volume. Its trunk is estimated to have a volume of around 1,320 m³!

This doesn't really capture the scale.

Along the trail, we also walked through a massive fallen tree trunk.

 Having David stand in there puts it in perspective a bit, doesn't it?

One of the coolest things we got to see, was the view from above the clouds we'd driven through on our way up the previous night. We took a walk up Moro Rock, to get an absolutely stunning view of the clouds flooding the valley below.

Bit of a climb it was, too!

The view from the top was truly one of the most spectacular things I've seen. I'm sure the normal view of the valley is pretty awesome too, but with the clouds, the blue sky, and the mountains, it was truly awe-inspiring.

A giant basin of clouds.

 Kind of makes you feel like you're on top of

the whole world, it does.

 Sunglasses reflections are cool.

That afternoon we took a tour of the Crystal Caves, of which I took no photos, because it was dark, and I would not have been able to get very good photos, so decided to simply enjoy myself and not worry about documenting things for later enjoyment. They were, however, utterly gorgeous, and much cheaper to tour than any New Zealand cave I've ever visited. The absence of weta was made up for by the threat of possible rattlesnakes on the path down to the caves. What with all the bears, cougars, and snakes I am continually warned about, I'm beginning to like camping in my safe little Aotearoa more and more. Fortunately none were encountered, only a few squirrels and chipmunks.

After the tour we went to see the General Sherman Tree, the largest in the world, and goodness it was massive!

Again, not capturing the immense scale.

One of the things about these giant sequoias is not just the size of them, but the sheer amount of impressively large trees there are in one place. Not only do the parks contain the biggest in the world, and the notable trees that you can walk through, drive through, park a car on, or build a house from, but everywhere there are huge trees, just hanging around on the side of the road, or along a path, that nobody really pays any attention to, because in this place there are just so many of them. Giant trees are everywhere here!

Sunday, after packing up camp, we took a drive to get a better look at King's Canyon. Once again I was blown away by how stunning America's national parks are.

Once again, not capturing the scale of incredible.

We didn't actually get the chance to go all the way down into the canyon, which was a bit of a shame, but what we did see was incredibly gorgeous. Guess that just gives me an excuse to go back another day!

Last stop before we left for home was a grove of giant tree stumps. Apparently I didn't actually take a photo of the whole thing, but here's two pictures of one stump, with David to put it in perspective. Keep in mind that I was also standing on the same stump when I took them.

 Insanely giant tree stump! Fun to climb on, they are.

Camping in America is a little different to camping in New Zealand, I've discovered. I've been several times, and some of the differences are minor, some more notable. I think the biggest one is the bears. Fortunately I haven't seen one yet (other than running across a field in Yosemite in June), but needing to be wary of them, and store all food and scented items in these big metal bear boxes is definitely a bit different. Camping where the worst thing you might encounter is a weta* or a possum certainly has its advantages. I'm not overly fond of having to guard my food from bears, raccoons, and mountain lions. Keeping an eye out for snakes along the path isn't much fun either.

 

Overall, it was a very awesome weekend, and I'm already looking forward to planning my next trip to far away exciting lands, wherever they may be.

 

*Side note. I just showed David a picture of a weta, and he is no longer so keen on the idea of New Zealand outdoors. For any Americans reading, this is what a weta looks like. And yes, they can jump.

The Past Nine Months

It's been rather a while since I wrote something here, huh? I've honestly no real idea were to start, or if it's even worth trying to do an update on what's been going on for the past almost-year. Maybe whenever I get around to updating this thing, I'll just ramble about whatever I feel like, instead of feeling like I need to keep it updated on every single thing I've been doing, which is quite clearly not possible, as staying up to date on things like this is just not something I'm good at. We'll go month by month, for this time.

January:

That was the last time I wrote anything, wasn't it? Goodness, I can hardly remember what I was doing then. Went to Oklahoma for a long weekend, which was very lovely. Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum was incredibly well done and very moving. I remember Oklahoma as very flat, which made going up what I was told was a mountain rather awesome, as we could see out for ever and ever.

Pretty awesome view, yes?

February:

David got back from Oklahoma in mid-February, which did wonders for my sanity levels. I also took a trip out to Tahoe with my host family, which almost ended in an attempt to put me in skis, but fortunately for us all, my arm was still not recovered from my last incident with strange things strapped to my feet in cold stuff, so I escaped unscathed. I did get a day to take a bit of a look around some of Nevada as well, including a look at the State's capital, Carson City, and an old little touristy mining town, on the way to pick Hannah up from a friend's house.

Tahoe is really rather pretty.

March:

I don't think I did all that much travelling in March. Had an Open Circle retreat out in Santa Cruz one weekend, which was very awesome. Met a ton of awesome people, and had a great time. I also had my first ever manicure, which was an interesting experience. I got them done in what I decided to call "TARDIS Blue", because I am a nerd like that.

April:

April was a busy, and incredibly exciting month. My dear Susan came to visit me, and we had many fantastic adventures around the place, seeing some of San Francisco and Monterey, and generally getting up to all sorts of mischief. I also took a four day trip to Vancouver with David, which was definitely a highlight of my travels thus far. Very beautiful, it is, and one of the only places I've been on my travels in North America that I could actually see myself living for a while. April was also the month that I decided to stay in the US for another year, which was a fairly huge decision, and one that I'm still very happy with. I miss home hugely, but the opportunity for travel (not to mention the bribery on part of my host mum) was just too much to pass up. I'm not quite finished with America yet, and I need a little longer to get as much out of it as I can.

May:

In May David and I took a roadtrip. The plan was to go a few hours south to Big Sur and camp for a night, but upon discovering that all the campsites were booked up we ended up driving south along Highway 1 for quite a bit further than we'd originally planned. We ended up spending the night in Santa Barbara, and making it all the way to Los Angeles the next day.

Well over a thousand seals, chilling out on a

beach we found along Highway 1.

June:

June was another very busy month. My mum and dad came to visit, and I took two weeks off work to go travelling around with them. We did Yosemite, Death Valley (Maximum temperature of 49°C/120°F was a bit too hot for me...), Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, The Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, and the Hoover Dam. America really does have some absolutely incredible national parks. I also turned 21 in June, which was a little interesting, as they don't really do it the same way here. In America, turning 21 just means that you're allowed to go to a pub, rather than the whole big party that it is back home. It made me miss home and all the people I have there a fair bit, but was also plenty of fun. Twas also interesting to have my parents meet some of the people in my life over here.

July:

In July I went on one of the most incredible trips of my life thus far. As part of her bribery to have me stay another year, my host mum took me to Africa with her and the kids. I highly doubt I will ever be able to travel in the way  that we did ever again. We flew business class, and stayed in some of the most amazing places I've ever seen. We flew into Johannesburg, then went up to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, spend four days at two different camps in the Okavango Delta, in Botswana, two more nights in Botswana at Chobe National Park, then to Windhoek, Namibia, where we rented a car and drove down to Sossusvlei, the world's largest sand dunes. We spent the last five days on the beach of a little island resort just off the coast of Mozambique. And yes, I am fully aware of how insanely lucky I am.

August:

I spent the first ten days of August in Europe, where I took an extended stopover on my ways back to the States, in order to sort out the renewal of my visa. My travel went a little less smoothly after leaving Judy and the kids, what with a fair bit of running around in Frankfurt to sort out some hidden costs of my visa, a confusion with airports that had me taking the fastest taxi ride of my life (180km/h on the autobahn anyone?), the friend I was meeting in England being seven hours late to meet me after being hit by a car on his way to the station, and a nasty case of food poisoning while camping. But that's the stuff that makes life more interesting, right? I got to stay with my grandparents for a few nights, which was really wonderful, as it had been a good five years since I last saw them, and also catch up with my dear Anastasia. On my way back to Frankfurt to fly out I spent a couple of nights in Brussels, staying in a little hostel down a little alleyway leading to La Grande Place. Fantastic city, is Brussels.
The rest of August was pretty much just getting back into the swing of school and general life after having been away for so long.

En Manneken Pis. Much

smaller than you'd expect.

September:

At the beginning of September, David and I took a trip up the coast for Labour Weekend. Labour Weekend is in September here. Very strange. It's generally my favourite thing about October. Most of the rest of the year, too, for that matter. I'm incredibly gutted to be missing my Wellyfest two years in a row. We drove all the way up Highway 1 to Portland, Oregon, and back home past Crater Lake. It was rather a lot of driving for four days, but fully worth it. Highway 1 really is incredibly gorgeous. It goes all the way up the West Coast of the USA, from San Diego to Seattle, and there are many portions of it that are just stunning.

A river we camped beside on the way home.

That about brings us up to date, I'm reckoning. I've got various plans for the rest of the year, including a trip to King's Canyon/Sequoia National Parks next weekend, a few days off over Thanksgiving that I am yet to figure out what to do with, and three weeks back home over Christmas and New Year's. All much excitingness.

If you're interested in photos, I've been rather slack at organising whole albums for facebook, but I have been managing to put up one every day or so over at a tumblr I was coerced into getting, which you can find here.

A Summary of the Past Few Months

Been a while, hasn't it? Sorry about that. I got caught up in other things, and have mostly been focusing on keeping my backlog of emails somewhat up to date, and the packages that I wanted to send by Christmas, and the photos for facebook, and everything else. This thing kind of fell by the wayside a little. I figure it's about time to rectify that with a (somewhat) brief update on how things are going. I think I'm going to try bullet-pointing the main things of interest, for fear of rambling on forever and ever, which I do not really have time for. As always, I do (eventually) respond to my emails, so if you have questions, want specifics, or just want to say hi, I would absolutely love to hear from you and hear how you're doing and fill you in on things a bit better.

So! Happenings since September:

• I had visitors! Was incredibly nice to have friends and people my own age, at a time where I'd been somewhat lacking in company. Was my first really good look at San Francisco, and was lots of fun to go around doing all the touristy stuff. Golden Gate Bridge, Pier 39, Chinatown, Haight-Ashbury, Alcatraz, all that fun stuff. Didn't really get all that much sleep, but it was a lot of fun.

• Joined Open Circle, a young adult group connected to one of the local churches. They are highly awesome people, and it has been a great way for me to get my butt out of the house on a regular basis. Many aspects of the group rather remins me of my own Ink community back home.

• Went to Chicago! Spent three days there, staying with a friend of mine, who showed me all about the place. Took many photos, some of which can be seen on facebook (still have a few to sort through...), along with a few little stories of what we got up to.

• Acquired a boyfriend (Yes, such things are acquisitions). He was promptly summoned off to Oklahoma for three months to complete some very important training.

• Did an American Halloween. Didn't end up dressing up, due to a few problems with a haunted house mission, and didn't go trick or treating, but I did carve a pumpkin!
  

• Lost a toenail. I was accidentally kicked in a rather unfortunate way, and the toenail on my left big toe was brutally separated from the toe. It hurt. A lot. Also meant that I was hobbling around and unable to wear anything but jandals for quite some time. Less than ideal, especially as that was just before the next one...

• Went to Yosemite. Yosemite is gorgeous. It's also a little cold for camping, when there's snow on the ground and you are stuck in jandals for the first day. It was also an interesting experience, camping in place where you had to store everything in a big, metal, bear-proof box. I have never had to worry about bears while camping before. That and the mountain lions.

• Had an American Thanksgiving. Family, good food, and none of the mass consumerism that comes with Christmas. I rather enjoyed it. That weekend we also went back to Yosemite, so more incredible gorgeousness. Seriously, words cannot possible describe the sheer awe-inspiring wonder that is Yosemite.

• Broke my arm. Apparently people with my coordination should not be allowed to ice-skate, as I went and fractured the elbow in two places. My right arm, too, so I was rather incapacitated, and am still not completely recovered. It really was quite a downer, as it took me five times as long to do all my work, meaning I had less time to do all my personal things, which also too twice as long, at a time where all I had energy for was sleeping, because having your arm at a funny angle makes sleeping comfortably and well a whole heap trickier, even though you really need it. Needless to say I got very behind on all my letters, postcards, emails and the like. I'm working on catching up now, but it's taking time. It was a stable fracture, so I had it in a splint for just over a week, and was then into just the sling, which I have now almost done away with, except for sometimes in public, mostly so that other people are aware of it and don't accidentally make it worse again. I can straighten it out pretty much all the way, bend it however I like, and turn my wrist over without insane amounts of pain, now. Currently I'm just not able to do any heavy lifting, or physical activities, which is a bit of a pain at times, but nowhere near as bad as it could be.

• Went to Dallas. Flying with a broken arm is a bit of a pain, but also handy for getting pushed through lines faster. Dallas itself was not all that interesting, Fort Worth was nicer, what with all the cowboy stuff and the history, but the company definitely made the trip absolutely fantastic.

• Christmas! We had family staying with us for the week leading up to Christmas. Was a rather nice time, but also quite strange for me, this being my first Christmas away from home and all. Being a day behind everyone else was also a little strange, although it did mean that I was able to Skype home for a bit, which was really nice.

• Went on a roadtrip. After Christmas, my host mum went to Mexico, and my kids went to stay with family in Illinois. This tragically meant that there was no work for me to do, so I got a week off over New Years. I took this opportunity to book a ticket to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to see my friend Steph, who I took on a roadtrip around New Zealand at the beginning of last year. This time I got to see her part of the world. We started in her hometown of Gallup, New Mexico, where we spent a couple of nights, then drove up through Arizona, stopping at Canyon De Chelley, to Durango, Colorado, where we spent the night with her aunt and uncle. We did a loop through the Rockies, staying a night in Ouray, before going back down to Durango via the lovely little ski town of Telluride. After New Year's Eve in Durango, we drove down to Santa Fe, the capital on New Mexico, and then back to Albuquerque, where I had to fly out. Very awesome week, and I'll do my best to write more about it at some point soon. Maybe just with the many photos I plan to put up sometime soon.

• Going to Oklahoma this weekend! And potentially tripping out to Arkansas, too. Hugely looking forward to it.
  

And that's just about it for the main stuff. Consider yourself up to date with what I've been up to! Sorry I couldn't go more in-depth on more of the details. Maybe next time, when I have less stuff to cover. Hopefully it won't be quite as long to the next one.

In Which Jaime Finally Posts Things She Wrote a While Ago

So where did I leave you all last time? Saturday night, I believe it was.

Reasonably soon after I got here I used my extensive knowledge of the internet to google "San Francisco Folk Club" and see if there was anything much happening about these parts in the way of a folk scene. It's been a fairly decent part of my life back home, so I figured it would be neat to see what it's like over here. I found a little website, and discovered that they were having a little campout thingamy over Labour Weekend (we just had Labour Weekend here). So I sent off an inquiring email and ended up going down for the Saturday night.

Due to the football taking forever, and my own disorganisation with packing, cooking, finding maps, getting distracted and the like, I set off a little later than anticipated. It was at a boy scout camp, way out near the end of a very long, hilly, windy road that I enjoyed driving down a little too much. It was a very pretty place, and I wish I had taken more photos, but alas, it got dark too quickly, and I ended up not staying until it was light again.

I was a bit too late for the potluck dinner that they were just cleaning up from, but I found someone to give me a general rundown on what was happening, where I could put my things and all that, then found a perch to eat some of the quiche I'd made. There were a few big scout tents with cots (American for wooden bedframe with a mattress on it) that were largely unoccupied, so instead of bothering to put up the tent I'd brought with me, I chose an empty one with not too many cobwebs and dumped my stuff in there before heading down to the open mic they had set up for the evening.

It was somewhat similar to the folkie things I'm used to in New Zealand, but distinctly different, too. Less Traditional English stuff, and more American songs. And of course, the distinct lack of New Zealand songs, but that's all to be expected, really. I don't think I recognised any of the songs at the open mic (although I think I might have once heard the rather lovely one about Arnold the armadillo, who falls in love with a concertina) but afterwards I found a lovely little jam session around a campfire, and I knew about half of those songs.

It didn't take too long for them to figure out that I was a visitor from New Zealand, and start trying to coax me into singing some kiwi songs. As I'm sure most of you are aware, I do not sing in public. Ever. Many have tried, and to that point, none have succeeded. But they were persuasive, and wanted to hear New Zealand songs for interests' sake, as they genuinely did not know any Kiwi songs. I caved, and sang The Chocolate Song (because if you do silly songs, people pay more attention to the words, and less attention to how badly you are singing them) and Pokarekare Ana (you know you're a long way from home when you sing that song and nobody knows it). I am ashamed to say that I am a terrible Kiwi, and could not provide a translation of the Maori, other than "Something to do with sailing away?" Shocking, I know.

By the time the jam session died down it was about 1:30 in the morning, and upon wandering back to my tent, I decided that I would sleep a lot better back at home, and would thus not need to wake up and drive back quite so early the next morning. By the time I'd packed up all my things, sorted everything out (and been distracted by another song or two) and managed to drive home (Without looking at a map or getting lost!) it was nearly 3am, and I was very grateful for my decision, as the next morning we were headed out to Sausalito Art and Wine Festival!

It was a lovely festival, too! Sausalito is just north of San Francisco, so it took us a little while to make it out there, but we had a lot of fun wandering around, looking at all the art stalls, eating some of the food, and listening to some of the live music. We spent well over an hour lying on the grass in the sun, listening to some very lovely live music in the smaller marquee. It very much made me feel like I was lying outside, listening to some music at a folk festival back home. I also grumbled a little about America and its silly drinking age, as I was surrounded by tents with wine, beer and cider, and on an afternoon like that it would have been just the thing. Much sadness.

I also got my first look at the Golden Gate Bridge, as we drove over it in both directions to get out and back. Very pretty bridge (I do love my pretty architecture), although it is sad that there is so very much traffic going over it. Although that is its primary purpose (looking pretty comes second, sadly), it would be much nicer without all the cars. Practical, I am. It takes a year to paint the whole bridge, and they paint it every year, so a never complete painting job. I don't think I'd fancy having that as a job.

In Which Observations on American Football are Made.

So, the past week. The week part of it was pretty much just daily routines and more settling in stuff. Drove some more, applied to be socially secure, continued getting more orientated with my surroundings and things. I may have some general America observations for you all at some point, but for now, we'll go with specifics of my weekend, which was much more interesting than the mundane routines of my everyday life. I can talk about them any day, most likely when I run out of other stuff to say.

Friday night I got my first opportunity to venture into San Francisco! Judy (my host mum) was going in for a baseball match, so I got a ride in with her and had a few hours to wander about the place before heading back up to the ball park. I didn't really get up to all that much of excitement, essentially just wandered down to Fisherman's Wharf, saw/ate/bought some things, and wandered back, but it was still fun to make it into the city and get a bit of a look around. If you want more details on my adventures that night, check the photos I will be putting up on facebook shortly, or email/skype/whatever me, and ask questions! Actually, you should all email/skype/write/etc. me anyways, because I love to hear from you! And am fairly decent with getting prompt responses out, for the most part.

Saturday a bunch of us au pairs went along to a college football game. Stanford vs San Jose State University. Made myself some awesome new friends (I now have some buddies to watch the World Cup with), got a bit sunburnt, and tried some more overpriced American game food. Not sure what to say about the actual football. It is a completely ridiculous sport, I have decided. Largely because it takes them forever to actually do anything. The first time they stopped the clock was five seconds into the game. And then again about ten seconds later (after the minute or so of getting everyone re-organised). And again another few seconds after that. And I'm not even exaggerating. They honestly play pretty much the entire game like that. I have no idea how it has such a huge fanbase, as watching it is not really all that fun, if you're paying attention to the game.

My impression of the game itself, is a bit like rugby, in that you've got guys running after a ball, and trying to either get it to the line at the other end of the field, or kick it over some sticks in the ground (I'm sure someone is going to be upset at my description of sports, here). There were about three key differences, as far as I could tell.

Firstly, in American football, anyone can tackle anyone, so it's not just the bloke with the ball who's going to get rammed into the ground, but anyone on the same team as the guy who has the misfortune to be holding the ball. Or, in fact, anyone from the opposite team, who looks like he's going to tackle the guy with the ball, or anyone else. Or anyone who is just standing idly by, because clearly he's up to something. This means it takes a lot longer for anything to happen, because there is a lot less passing of the ball, and a lot more dodging people who are trying to kill you in an attempt to give the poor sod with the ball somebody to pass to before he himself gets flattened. It also means that the time the ball is in play at any one time is greatly limited, because of our second thing...

Every time the dude with the ball falls over (generally because about five other dudes have flung themselves at him in desperation to stop him from passing the ball off to one of his friends) the game stops for a bit, while everyone stands back up again and meanders back to where they were standing a few seconds ago. The clock also stops while everyone collects their wits and stand back up again, leading to that whole problem of it taking forever for anything to happen. The entire game seemed to go this way, although we did only stay until half time, so perhaps the second half was better. I doubt it, though.

Can't remember what the third key difference was. They can pass the ball forwards. If, for some reason, someone actually manages to make it ahead of the guy with the ball, without being flattened by some guy from the other team. The scoring system is different, and there are a whole bunch of other things up on the scoreboard which I failed to understand. They have quarters, instead of halves. They don't have beer. Much to the despair of several of our group, as it's a huge sports game in the scorching sun, surely nice cold beer would help with this. (I, of course, am still underage in this country, and would never even dream of drinking any of that terrible alcohol stuff until such a time as I reach an appropriate age.)

Actually, difference three can be the fans. The fanbase is absolutely incredible, and while I certainly didn't find the game itself especially awe inspiring, the experience as a whole was kind of neat, even if I did spend the whole time in the scorching sun, eating not very nice, overpriced food, and watching a game that I don't really see the point of. This was a college game, not even a professional league game, and it was at a stadium that is part of the university, and can seat 50,000 people. And the stadium was reasonably full, too! The fans are all dressed up in their colours, and people camp out for days to be there for this thing. There are team mascots, marching bands, and yes, cheerleaders in very short skirts, too. It's absolutely massive. Even the football teams seem to have way, way more players than they need. I swear each team had at least fifty people, even though about ten of them were ever on the field at a time. Maybe people get knocked out so frequently that each person needs an extra four reserves? I do not know.

It's definitely an experience, at any rate, and I met some nice people, and got bits of it explained to me as we went, via various means. Tried to convince the guys sitting in front of us that rugby was better. Not entirely sure if I was completely successful, but they did agree that it takes forever for anything to happen. Apparently it's better in the south, but still just as slow. I think I'll take their word for it.


It is now past midnight, because I am easily distracted by wonderful people, so I will leave you with that for now. Tomorrow I will hopefully share tales of the rest of my weekend, including a night at a San Francisco Folk Club Labour weekend camp, and a trip to an arts festival.

In Which Jaime Settles in and Learns to Drive Again

The past few days have been reasonably uneventful, I think. When did I last update this? Monday?

This week I've started actually working for my keep. Which has been good for me, I think. I nearly almost sort of missed getting up early and doing things by 7am or so. Nearly almost sort of, mind. I still keep staying up far too late talking to people I shouldn't be talking with and getting generally distracted from the whole sleeping thing. I think this is generally unhelped by the whole timezone issue, meaning that my night time is late afternoon the next day back in New Zealand, and a perfect time for everyone I want to be catching up with to be online. Clearly I need to work harder on getting everyone on Skype, so that we can cover more interesting things faster.

I do get a fair amount of time off in the middle of the day, though (like now), which has been used for napping, and catching up on aforementioned sleep. It is time that will hopefully be filled with a few college courses sometime soon, which I expect will be far, far more productive than sitting around home doing very little (It's probably also bad for the homesickness that is likely to kick in at some point). I'm still not sure what sort of papers I want to take, but currently my thinkings are somewhere along the lines of American History (apparently this often involves a bit of travel, too), or the computer programming kind of thing. I think it largely depends on what still has spaces at the right times and things. Sadly they have to be "accredited" courses, meaning that I'm not allowed to take the dance, music, or photography classes I've found. Or knitting. That looked like fun.

I guess the major thing of the week is that I've now started driving, which is certainly an adjustment. My initial thoughts about driving were that being on the wrong side of the road would be incredibly unsettling, but as I've told several people, what I've actually found far, far stranger is being on the wrong side of the car. I need to re-train my instincts to deal with all the extra car I have sticking out of one side, and all the extra space I have on the other.

I seem to be picking it up fairly quickly, for the most part. At least they aren't silly enough to swap the accelerator and the brake around, that would cause far more problems. The handbrakes here are weird, however, as they are not, in fact, handbrakes, but footbrakes, that I seem to mostly call the park brake, and reminisce about how lovely planes are.

I have not killed any small animals (or larger ones), or hit anything thus far, so have deemed this whole driving on the wrong side thing a relative success. At least for now.

Videos!

Because this is easier than typing everything up.

Written in Airports on Thursday

Been a very busy few days, since last I wrote anything for you all. Made it to New Jersey (32 hours of travel all up, it was), had the orientation days, a tour of New York, and then won a trip in to New York again last night. I am currently sitting outside my gate in Newark airport, waiting to board my flight to Dallas.

Currently about half the flight is already standing up and waiting in line to board the plane, even though our boarding call won’t be for at least another five minutes. I don’t quite see the point in being the first to get on the plane. Especially if you have to stand up and wait fifteen minutes for it. It’s much more comfortable out here, and being first on isn’t going to make us get there any faster. Maybe it’s just an American thing that I just don’t get.

Oooh. They’ve called up the first class passengers now. I guess I should turn off my laptop for a little bit, so I can pack it away to get on the plane. My bags are not nearly as well packed this time, so there’s quite a lot of stuff in my laptop bag.

I’m very glad they didn’t want to search through my bags on the way through security, as it would have been a right pain to get all the random things out and back in again.


Have now made it through to Dallas, Texas, and am once again sitting and waiting to board a delayed plane. This is my last flight for quite some time, though, which I have to say I’m glad of. Flights within America are especially not fun, I have discovered. Maybe it’s just my airline, but they don’t do food (aside from the reasonably rubbish stuff you can buy at airline prices), they’re very noisy, don’t do in-flight movies, and are hugely, hugely over-air-conditioned. Ah well.

I suppose a run-down of the past few days could be interesting, rather than just me rabbiting on about planes, yes?

My flight from Los Angeles to New York was about six hours, but it felt like a lot more. I managed to kind of doze a little bit, but not really. When I got to the airport, the shuttle picking me up was nowhere to be found, so I had to find the transport phones and call someone, who transferred me to someone else, who got someone to come and pick me up.

The shuttle turned out to be a very, very nice car, with leather seats, and heaps of legroom. It was really rather lovely after all the time on the planes. The guy was driving me was highly awesome, too. We talked most of the way to the hotel (an hour and a half), and he pointed out some of the landmarks that were visible through the pouring rain. It really was fairly epic rain, and apparently the drainage systems in New York is not the best, as there was an awful lot of flooding on the roads. I probably shouldn’t have enjoyed driving through it quite as much as I did..

Oh hey. We’re starting to board! Guess I’ll write more sometime later.

From the Journey Over Here

Written in Auckland: I have now successful made it to Auckland! One step. There’s still ages to go (And by the time I actually get this up I will most likely be through to New Jersey), but I am now properly on my way, and off on adventures. Exciting stuff!

Packing wasn’t as difficult as I’d anticipated. I figured that packing my entire life into one bag (well, three, I suppose, as there’s my backpack and my laptop case too) would involve an awful lot of squishing, tricky decision making, and weighing of things. But after I’d packed all of the essential things, and a few extras, I was still a good ten kilos under the weight limit, with a fair bit of space to spare! I think all up, my life weighs fifteen kilos, which I am really very stoked with. It also means that my backpack is fairly empty, and my laptop bag only has my laptop in it!

I probably didn’t leave my room back home as tidy as I should have, though (Sorry Mum). Boxed up most things, but there’s still stuff on the walls, bookshelf, and a few things in the cupboards. One of these days I might learn to be a little better organised.

I think part of the problem is that it still hasn’t quite sunk in. I still kind of expect to be able to pop back home for a bit to tidy up the rest of my things. Maybe it’ll hit me once I’m in Los Angeles. Or New York. Cupertino? Maybe it’ll never properly hit me. I guess we’ll see.

The flight up here was pretty good, although I have a bit of a headache from trying not to bawl my eyes out the entire way (I already miss you all like crazy). Fortunately I had the entire row all to myself, so didn’t have to deal with people next to me asking if I was okay and watching me being all weepy in public. I then proceeded to read Billy’s letter, and Katie’s epic card and start looking blubbery again. I really do have the most incredible friends, flatmates, and family.
The plane was all shiny and new, too. It was one of their very new ones with fancy shiny newness. (Very descriptive of me, I know)

I’ve been through customs and security and things and am sitting around in what is technically no longer New Zealand. Haven’t yet set off a detector or been asked to remove articles of clothing, which is nice. We’ll see if I can keep it up once I reach America…


Los Angeles: I have made it to America! I am currently sitting outside my gate in Los Angeles, after having cleared immigration, security, and everything else. I’m not sure exactly what time it is here (my laptop says 3:42am, but that’s because it hasn’t yet realised we’ve travelled back in time.) but I think it’s closing in on 9am (Still Sunday. A very long Sunday it is, too), which gives me another two hours to sit around before my flight to New York. It’s a pity the American airports aren’t as good as New Zealand about having giant clocks everywhere. Although, I shouldn’t make my judgements on one airport alone. I’m sitting outside my gate, so I shan’t miss my flight due to unawareness of time, at any rate.

I definitely prefer New Zealand Airports to American ones thus far. Clearing immigration was always going to be slow, but I didn’t realise getting through security for my domestic flight would be such a pain, too. I had to wait in about five queues, including one very long one to just get up an escalator. I’m becoming increasingly fond of my little island home.

I’ve now been asked to remove clothing, too. So I guess I don’t get to keep that record. It was only my shoes, though, so no dramatic strip search stories for you. It’s very nice not having things in my laptop case, as well, for each time I go through security I have to take it out and hand it to them separately.

The flight over here was… decent. I suppose. Thirteen hours on a plane is never going to be especially fun, but it would have been nice if I hadn’t been served last (subsequently missing my first choice) for both meals. Yay cold, dry cereal and chewy lamb that was mostly gristle and fat! Definitely not convinced on the Qantas food, and the squashed cardboard muffin and supposed fruit salad weren’t great either. The guy I sat next to had his pillow on the armrest the whole time, and squished into my space, while the lady in front had her seat back for nearly the entire flight, and there was a metal box under my seat that halved my foot space.

Sorry. I might be a tiny bit grumpy right now, and grumbling here is better than glaring at people around me.

Couldn’t really sleep on the flight, but then, I didn’t really expect to. Instead I watched three movies, a Stephen Fry stand up thingamy, and listened to some Hamish and Andy. For those of you who are interested, Water for Elephants is decent, as is Arthur, but Paul was definitely my favourite. Dad and Thomas, you’d both definitely like it (I think).

Every ten minutes of so an announcement comes on. *Cue American accent* “Your attention please. Welcome to Los Angeles International Airport. Please maintain visual contact with your personal property at all times, and something else about not leaving things unattended. Thank you for your co-operation.” I don’t know why, but I felt like sharing that with you.

There was a famous boxer on our flight too, I found out. This was discovered when half the flight started taking photos with him in Auckland just before we boarded. Apparently he beat David Tua last night or something. (You can see that I follow boxing very closely…) The guy next to me and the one in front of him were both travelling with him, so he came back from first class to say hi a few times. I’m sure someone who cares about boxing is highly jealous.

The sleepiness is kicking in now (apparently the coke I just had is not doing the whole caffeine thing very well), so I shall stop writing for now and pop this away in favour of a short naptime.

And Diane Keaton just came off the plane I’ll be getting on. Interesting.


Half an hour later: Flight to New York has been delayed an hour. Fantastic. The plane is here, and they were boarding people, and then everyone had to file off again because they’re having issues at the New York end, or something. I don’t know exactly, I just do what they tell me, I suppose. I just hope this doesn’t mean that the shuttle meeting me gets messed up. I don’t really fancy spending more time waiting around in airports than absolutely necessary.

I should probably be using this time to do something productive, but I think I might just conclude that sleep in a place where I can lie down counts as productive.

Oh hey. We just got an update. Apparently we board in fifteen minutes, because they need the gate, but will likely spend about half an hour waiting about on the tarmac. And there’s not much food on board. My stomach is already being a little rumbly. Fabulous.

I think I’ll go get something to eat, or take on the plane with me.

Auckland Adventures

Three days to go and it's suddenly starting to get very hectic.

Last week I was up in Auckland, mainly to sort out the visa situation (rant on that in a moment), but also for a pre-departure meeting, and to generally catch up with a few people up that way.

I've never really spent much time in Auckland, I think. although I can now figure my way about fairly well, I think. After wanderings in search of cake, and various other foodstuffs (on my last day I was shown the most incredible cake shop), I think I've at least got the city centre mostly figured out. I even managed to figure out public transport on numerous occasions! Although I also forgot to allow for the fact that it was likely to be more than 20 minutes late in the mornings, and so was a tad late for my visa interview.

Not that it seemed to matter in the slightest, as it then proceeded to be even more pointless than I had anticipated. After I had made it there, and left my bag and phone with security, I then had to see a lady, who took my fingerprints with a fancy scanner thing, and took my forms off me. After that, I was directed to take a seat and wait for them to call my name for the interview. I had the absolute delight of waiting for an hour or so (fortunately I had listened to the advice I was given, and had brought a book with me) before being summoned up to the desk for my supposed interview.

This interview, that was so very important that it absolutely had to be in Auckland, and nowhere else, for fear the world might implode, took all of about thirty seconds, and it was quite clear the guy was simply asking polite questions (all two of them) to pass the time while he processed my form.

Other than the infuriating purpose of my trip (and the running around involved to pay their exorbitant fees), I had a very good time up North, and it was very nice to see friends and family before I head off to far away.

In the week since getting back I've spent a fair bit of time in a kind of dead zone, which I seem to have snapped out of a little today, due to one thing or another. Apparently my emotions are a little crazy. It's quite a strange feeling, being almost gone, but not really doing anything towards actually leaving. Although that was largely my own procrastination, and came to a grinding halt today when I finally came to terms with just how much I still need to do.

Today I started the process of moving all my stuff back home, and getting it all sorted so that it can be boxed up and out of the way while I'm overseas. There's still an awful lot of work to do there, and I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to get through it all, but I have to, so it will get done. I guess it's just the quality of work at stake.

I also got my international driving permit today, which is somewhat exciting, as it means I'll be able to drive on the wrong side of the road without breaking the law. Or something.

The Travelling Rambles Of Yesterday

I'm writing this while on the Overlander up to Auckland for my visa interview (GrumblemumblesillyAucklandgrumble). My interview isn't until Wednesday, but I've decided to spend a few days up there, so that I can catch up with a few people up that way, and because today was the only day the Overlander goes up.
But Jaime! I hear you exclaim. Why on earth are you subjecting yourself to twelve hours on a train when you could just fly up? Good question, that. And in short, I don't quite know. My brain is clearly a little weird.
Largely because it's a little cheaper to do it this way (albeit, not by very much, and considering I'll probably spend more money on food and things, a not especially legitimate reason), and because it's a journey that I've always wanted to do. Iconic Kiwi railway and all, the Main Trunk Line. I think also, I lacked the ability to realise just how early I'd have to drag myself out of bed this morning. Something that was a tad difficult, considering the hour I got to bed last night. But hey, who needs sleep anyway?

I must say, I'm very much enjoying the trip so far. It's nice to get a different view of the country, and I always rather enjoy having a bit of time out, where I'm removed from life a little bit, something that, for me, comes best with the removal of internet and cell phone coverage. I had hoped to be able to do lots of work on my pre-departure project on the journey up here, but I'm finding most of it fairly difficult, as handwriting things while the train is moving isn't really much of an option if I want it to look nice.


My flights up to Auckland and out of the country are all booked and ready to go (at least, I hope so), and I shall be flying out of Wellington at 8:30am on Sunday the 14t of August, for anyone who feels like getting up very early and coming along to the airport. I then have the absolute joy of spending four hours in the thriving metropolis of Auckland Airport before flying off to LA at 1:30pm. From LA I fly to New York, and head straight to my training course in New Jersey, where I'll be until the Thursday afternoon or so, when I fly off to my new home.

Only two weeks to go now!

Written a while later: 3:30pm, and we’re about eight hours in now. Still rather enjoying the journey, although the large amounts of time spent in the same seat are becoming a little tiresome. New boots are being a bit of a pain, too. Apparently they’re fine when I’m walking about the place, but put a slight strain on the top of my foot when I’m sitting. It’s becoming a little bit owie, but I don’t really have the foot space to take them off, as I seem to have a tendency to carry too much crap with me. Ah well. We shall live, I’m sure. And it’s all likely to help the process of wearing them in.

It’s really rather nice outside today, which makes me very happy, especially as this is a touristy scenic trip and all. It’s very nice to have been able to get an absolutely spectacular view of Ruapehu, Tongariro and Ngaruhoe, and currently there is not a cloud to be seen in the sky, very definitely a nice reprieve from the usual winter chilliness. I also very much enjoy seeing my country at its best when I’m surrounded by tourists.

It’s rather interesting seeing New Zealand through a touristy viewpoint, as it’s not how I usually see it, even when I’m travelling about the country. I feel incredibly knowledgeable on the general area (although a little less so the further north we get), simply because I can distinguish between the three mountains, and tell the general direction of Taranaki. I feel surrounded by foreign accents, which I suspect is a tad silly, seeing as I will be far, far more immersed in foreign accents in two weeks time.

Passports, Photos, Planes, and Ponderings

I said I’d update this more frequently when I had things to report, but it seems I’ve been rather slack with it all. In my defence, not much seems to have really happened just yet, which I’m finding mildly unnerving. After getting a placement I was expecting a sudden onslaught of paperwork, and plans, but it still seems to have been rather quiet on the arrangements front.

Mid June I sorted out my new passport, as the old one expires at the beginning of next year (cue rant on five year New Zealand passports as opposed to the ten year ones of almost every other country), and sent off all the visa paperwork on my genocidal tendencies and such. Last week I got some more news on the visa front, and am scheduled for an appointment with the US consul in Auckland a week and a half before I leave. It still frustrates me that I need to go all the way up to Auckland for a few days to get the visa sorted, when I live in the capital city, and in the same city as the American embassy, but ah well. It does mean I’ll get to catch up with a few friends up that way, which shall be nice.

With details of my visa appointment also came my flights to America, which are now fully booked and ready to go. I still need to book my own flight up to Auckland on the Sunday, but I’ve got to be in Auckland by 10:30am that day, so I expect I’ll be flying out at around nine that morning.

I’ve been keeping in touch with my family over in the states, and have received several photos of them and my new home, which I will excitedly show to anyone who wants to see. The house looks completely fantastic, and I’m sure I’ve already gushed about how awesome my family are, so I’ll spare you the details. I’ve also exchanged a few emails with a girl from Germany, who will be an au pair in the same area as me, and arrives on the same day, which has been exciting. It’s nice to know that I’ll have at least one friend to look out for when I get over there.

With less than a month to go, the reality of what I’m doing has started to sink in a bit. When I was originally planning this, I was going to be leaving straight after high school, moving out of home and going off for a year away before coming back to study. I figured that with the end of school things would be changing anyway. Friends were moving away, be it overseas, or to universities around the country, and if I was going tear myself away from the comfortable familiarity of my friends and family, then this was the time to do it. Things were going to change anyway, so I might as well go with it and go for a dramatic change

And then it got delayed. For several reasons, although I expect it was largely because I didn’t quite have the conviction to follow through with the paperwork and organise myself enough to make the leap and break away from the familiar things. I’ve never been great with commitment and I was probably avoiding the time where I’d have to make a few tricky decisions and sacrifices.

A year and a half later, I’m reasonably settled where I am. I live with absolutely incredible people and have amazing friends, all of whom I love very much, and am going to miss dreadfully. I’ve grown up a lot over the past year or so, and learnt an awful lot, which I expect will help me while I’m off on my adventures, but I’m also leaving behind something fantastic. I’m definitely not having regrets, and I actually think that now is probably a better time for me to be going, now that I have a little more experience with nannying (and general life), but I’m certainly going to miss a lot.

But I shan’t be gone forever, though (you lot can’t get rid of me that easily), and life shall still be here when I get back, even if a few things have changed a little.

And So It Begins

Paperwork is such a joyous thing, isn't it?

I expect there's a lot more of it to come, but over the past couple of days I have had the absolute joy of filling in forms for both my visa, and my passport renewal (which I probably should have tackled much earlier).

The American visa forms were especially amusing. Along with the three questions asking about my terrorist affiliations, and several others on my various torturing, money laundering and prostitution habits, was my personal favourite; "Have you ever ordered, incited, committed, assisted, or otherwise participated in genocide?"

I know they're all very conscious of security and all, but I expect if a genocidal terrorist was stupid enough to actually tick the yes box, they wouldn't be able to get their head around the rest of the form.

Tomorrow (assuming I manage to convince someone with a current passport to agree I exist) I'll head into the passport office to hand in all the forms and get my new passport on its way. I'll probably have to go past twice, as I think the photos I got done for my visa aren't good enough, even if I chop them up a bit. But I might as well check first, rather than fork out twenty bucks or so for some new ones. The passport itself is already costing over $150.

What with that, and the final payment I made yesterday, not to mention the new laptop, and my current state of unemployment, my bank balance is not looking quite as cheerful as it once was. Ah well. I'll get fun stories to share with you all instead. A very worthy investment.

I now have a few definite dates as well, which is rather nice. I abandon New Zealand on the 14th of August, to arrive in New Jersey, where I will be for my training course until the 18th, when I fly off to my new home in California. My program is scheduled to finish on the 15thof August 2012, and my plans for then are still a little fuzzy, and largely dependant on how eager I am to get home. I'll probably travel about the States for a month, until my visa runs out, then fly onwards or homewards. They'll pay for a flight either back to Auckland, or on to London, and currently the plan is to go over and spend a bit of time in the UK, maybe some more of Europe, too. It'll be good to see my grandparents, Anastasia, and a few others who I might be borrowing couches from. At some point I'll probably come home, but I do have a British passport, so I could potentially stay and work there for quite some time, if I feel like it.

Those shall be decisions for another far away day.