The Road So Far

Christchurch by night

As I walk back home on a cold rainy night after a Vietnamese goodbye dinner for a few flatmates who will soon be leaving, I have this overwhelming perception that the emotional adjustment I should have felt a month ago is finally catching up to me. Since I arrived in New Zealand, or before I even landed, it has been a continuous rollercoaster of new experiences and it seems as if what I should have gone through in six months already happened in thirty days. So, let´s recap the story so far. 

I have changed houses, made friendships that seem to be developing at the speed of dog years, experienced movie-like encounters, was adopted by a loving family, went on road trips to breathtaking places, hiked mounts by day, kissed on mountains by night, went to local clubs and casino, had a part-time job interview (where I was asked about my background on cleaning toilets), enjoyed homemade food prepared by skilled Portuguese, Brazilian, German, British, Indian and Bangladeshi hands, baked a traditional New Zealand cake, etc, etc, et cetera. Oh, and on the spare time of all this, there is also a little thing I like to call "my internship" which is the reason that brought me here but that now appears to be a side note on the script of my kiwi life. In other words, I´ve laughed, cried, fell down, got up, but never stopped for a minute. Until tonight.

Funny how I crossed the world hoping to have a fresh start, a clean slate or whatever new beginning kind of analogy you want to call it, but the blank page I was preparing myself to slowly and carefully write on in order to avoid past misspelling errors, quickly turned into a full encyclopedia I didn´t have time to proofread as the pages flashed before my eyes. And tonight, as I am walking home shouting away laughs that echo on the empty wet road, I suddenly realize that I am already saying goodbye to people I grew extremely fond of on the exact day of my first monthversary with New Zealand. Hence, I take a long deep cold breath and it finally hit me that I am here. And in that moment it felt like a blank book just fell on my lap ready to be written on. Let´s see how the writings of the next volume turn out to be.