New Country, New Zealand

This is the 4th / 5th time I've moved countries, most actually within the last 6-7 years, and I've definitely learnt a few things.

#1 Having even one ally in a town can literally make or break you. I've lucked out here in Auckland, and have this great friend named Ralph, who is a constantly amazing friend and keeps introducing me to even more great people! The weekend away at the Coromandel (the seaside) was DOPE. There were 15 or so of us holed up in what they call a 'bach' - really it was like a miniature house/ cabin that is literally just for the purposes of a quick getaway. We ate good food, drank cheap wine, played games, and talked and I watched as an amazing group of people said goodbye to one of their own, as she embarks on her own adventures and a new life in London, England in a few days time.

#2 Enjoying your time at the start and not stressing about all the necessities - job, house, friends, phone, transport, health coverage, bank ... etc etc.
Those things will all come with a little bit of work and looking around for your best options and being willing to go out and have a bit of fun. If you freak out (which we are ALL susceptible to going through), you will just end up making it harder on yourself in more ways than one. You'll stress out, feel like things are a lot harder than they actually are, and even alienate yourself from a potential boss or friend from getting to see you for who you actually are.

So yesterday.. when I was feeling a little overwhelmed with everything .. I climbed a tree in a big park with not many souls strolling about and wrote in my journal just to empty my thoughts on to a page rather than to continue swirling around in my mind with no tangible outlet. I felt SO free after that. Even just climbing into the tree made me feel like I was elevated in a way from my problems, even if just for an hour. Sometimes that seems to be enough to make the self-induced pressure subside. So I'm sitting up in this tree minding my own business as a woman and her dog come by. I thought they had passed me, and was about to jump out of the tree, when next thing I know this woman's dog took a running start and ran up the tree (it is a bit slanted in climbing's favour, but FAR too steep to have ever expected that to happen), and was scrambling along my legs when I caught it from losing it's momentum and falling from the limbs. Then it was so excited and started licking my face, and I just started laughing out of complete shock and amazement as well as ticklishness, and had to help the dog out of the tree with it's owner completely flabbergasted and yelling for her dear Rose to 'come out of that tree right now!'.

TOO funny.

After that I wandered around for a few hours, found a Japanese market, a Korean market (!!), picked up my film, found a sweet veggie restaurant where you buy 6 dishes and get the 7th for free, and then stumbled upon an amazing old abandoned building that was about to get renovated, and got a tour from the architect and an autistic man in a skirt who was helping them fix it up in exchange for being able to stay there. Seriously great day.

And the flatmates at Ralph's.. love them all. We have one American, two Kiwis, one Norweigan, one German, and now me.

As to finish of the list of how to settle faster -
#3. Be up for anything. a n y thing. Just go. Do it. You don't like it, then don't do it again, but I bet you'll still meet some rad folks.

#4. Talk to everyone. Have conversations, make friends. I've already made one at the bus stop who I've got to call because she's invited me over for dinner at her place! People are; for the most part of course; inherently kind and also like making new friends just as much as you do, you just have to find the ones that you click with is all.

Moved ... again

Things have been crazy lately, I packed up, cleared out, said goodbye and left once again for a new home country. This time, it's New Zealand, and although I've only been here for 3 days now, I'm already loving all the awesome people I'm meeting, and the fun places I'm getting to go!

I sounds like a Dr. Suess book, but I'm serious, that so far, it's been great here, and I'm really hoping that I'll be able to stumble into some great projects and get doing some creative stuff with others again. So far, I've been doing the typical - meeting people, making friends, going out to rad little bars and restaurants.. and this weekend I'm going with some friends to someone's going away on the coast at their getaway house! Seriously... how fun does that sound!?

So really, now all I have to do is find a job, house, bike and phone, then everything from there will hopefully fall into place, but so far, I've got a feeling that it'll be alright.

Photos of Malaysia

Borneo

I'm in Borneo at the moment - Kota kinabalu to be exact. It's been amazing here with each day drastically different. Running from wild orang utans or standing literally less than 2 feet from one as it looked about inquisitively, snorkeling with fish and coral, a boat ride where we spotted three different kinds of monkeys; proboscis, silver leaf, and ringtailed macats; catching fireflies and watching whole communities of them lighting up a tree like it was Christmas, dancing with natives and drinking their homemade moonshine vodka and whiskey (the latter may have led to me showing them an iPod touch and rap for the first time in their lives), rescuing a newborn kitten, wandering around wet markets by the seaside (read fish markets to those not used to the term), and on and on and on...

There are 9 sultans, 1 king, a prime minister, and the largest flower in the world - a rafflesia, which smells like rotting flesh to attract flies which THEN attract the flowers prey - sounds kind of like that 'i don't know why she swallowed the fly' song about to begin. The tribes are known for various skills like bead work, weaving, agriculture, hunting, and prior to about 250 years ago, for headhunting as well. We stayed with one section of the Iban tribe in their longhouse, which consists of the whole community of 299 people living and sleeping under one roof. Wild. Not a one of them snores, aside from the local guy that translated for us. Guess that kind of thing wouldn't be tolerated if you wanted to stay in the longhouse. Ha.

I head home in a day... Wild. I've been on this trip with my mum, and It's been awesome since she's up for an adventure just like me.we're thinking our next trip in 2 years should be to Africa somewhere. The thought we like the most is trying to hit Mauritius or Madagascar, or perhaps both!

I've got two weeks at home with the family, then off to New Zealand for a new adventure of trying to find work and a home until Septembers India trip isto begin. Can't wait to see what tomorrow holds.

Saw a good quote today in a book store by C.S. Lewis that is along these lines - 'There is not a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to ever satisfy me'.