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.

In Which Progress Is Made

Probably should have updated this thing since October, but hey, it was originally for America, and up until a few days ago, I didn’t really have any new things to tell.

So on Wednesday morning my file was finally released to be circulated around families, and within an hour I already had a family wanting to interview. Within four hours I had two families, and an hour later I was talking to a family! The first family I talked to were pretty awesome. We talked for just over half an hour about their family, my childcare experience, their town, all those of things. It was a good conversation, we got on very well, and I could see myself living with them without too many difficulties. They were a solidly good family, and said a whole bunch of things that made me want to leap all over them.

Thursday I spoke with the second family. First I talked to the mum for a good forty five minutes, mostly about the kids, their family, their neighbourhood and me and my potential role in the family. We did often get a little off topic, though, talking about all sorts of things. This conversation felt a lot less like an interview, and more like just chatting with an awesome new friend.

The kids got home a couple hours later, so we set up another call, so that I could meet them, and talk to them a bit. Two hours later I was back on Skype and pulling faces at the kids. Those kids are amazing, and I’m already very attached to them, so it’s very fortunate that…

When I checked my emails on Friday morning I found a formal match offer from them. I did my level best to refrain from jumping at everyone in my general vicinity (to a semi-successful degree), and arranged to talk to the national representative, before formally accepting the offer. I’d been given very strict instructions that I was not to agree to a match without talking to her first, and after leaving a message, spent a couple of hours eagerly waiting for her to call me back. I got the call while I was in town, and Talya can attest to my excitable noises and dancings.

Naturally I sent back a massive YES once I got home, and now we’re working on the logistics and timing. From what I know so far, I expect my most likely departure date will be the 7^th of August, although it may end up being slightly earlier, depending on flights, availability of space in the New Jersey training course, and a few other things.

I’m expecting an onslaught of paperwork to come in the next week or so, and then it shall be full steam ahead with chaos and preparations!

It’s amazing how I spent so many months waiting on progress, and then when something happens it all goes so fast. Over two months ago I was told that my file would be released “within the week”, and after all that time, it takes two days to have a family all sorted out and waiting for me

I’m not meant to disclose information on the family over the internet (fair enough, too), so if you want details on the family, talk to me, and I’m sure you’ll want me to be shutting up about how fantastic they are fairly soon. But I’ll be living in California for a year, about 45 minutes out of San Francisco, with a single mother and two children, a twelve year old boy, and a girl who turns ten this month.

Writing an email to the other family, telling them that I’d accepted an offer from someone else, was pretty difficult. They were a really awesome family, and I felt bad responding to an email asking for a second interview with their son and current au pair with news that wasn’t so great for them. They were nice about it, though, and we both wished each other well.

Life other than America stuff has been pretty good, too. In November I switched flats, then (technically) moved home in January, a day before heading off to what was probably my best Walsh yet. Came home from that via a small folk festival, and set off a couple weeks later on an epic road trip with my darling Stephanie.

A month or so after getting home from our adventures I was back flatting in Newtown. (After all, moving home was mostly for the purposes of not paying rent while I was away.) I’m living in the same community as before, in a flat just down the road from the last one, and with five other girls. It’s been awesome so far, and I will shall miss them all dreadfully when I leave.

As far as work goes, I have been working several jobs, and pretty much unemployed for the vast majority of this year. I’ve done several shifts out at a wedding venue in Ohariu Valley, which I actually rather enjoy, for the most part. The main problem is that it takes a good hour to get there on my every failing scooter, which is especially not fun on the way home, in the rain, at two in the morning. The shifts are fairly long, meaning I can make enough to cover rent if I do two a week, which was nice during the wedding season. It has since come to a grinding halt with the arrival of winter, and I’m now working there about once a month, if that. I’ve also worked a few days helping out in the unit at Mum’s school, and am cleaning for a friend of a friend on a weekly basis.

A couple of months ago I got a job working with a company that organises relievers for various kindergartens and daycare centres around the place, which I thought would have me working nearly full-time, if I wanted to be. But alas, I’d sent off my most recent police check about a week before getting the job, and so I have been stuck waiting, yet again, on the Ministry of Justice, who are taking their bloody time about it. I do believe it’s the fourth police check I’ve had done in the past two years. Hopefully it will all come through soon, and I’ll be able to stop digging into my savings to pay the rent.

Phew! Bit of an essay there. Cookies to anyone who actually reads it all. Hopefully there shall be more exciting happenings afoot before too long.