Sunday, May 23, 2010

The Adventure Continues...

So we have left New Zealand behind for the wild jungle adventures of Costa Rica....Stay tuned!

Monday, May 17, 2010

Wedding Gifts

Though I'm not crazy about being home, one nice thing is to see friends and family before we bop off on another adventure. Last Friday Greg's mother surprised us with a beautiful dinner at Elizabeth's Chophouse to celebrate our wedding. It was really very nice, she and Greg's grandma decorated the table with all sorts of cute wedding stuff including candles and little scrapbook graphic things that were adorable. It was really unexpected and so nice. The picture above showcases two of the  gifts we got, a wonderful engraved silver cup for sabbath and a groovy new camera. Greg is totally in love with this camera and is using it all over. While  I haven't had the chance to use it much myself yet, I have to say it takes pretty nice pics. So much love and thanks to my mom-in-law and grandma-in-law for a really great evening! :)

Friday, May 7, 2010

Back in Michigan...

Well we made it back to Michigan. I'd say back home but it's just not how I feel about it. Honestly its completely depressing to be here, so in the spirit of living in the moment and enjoying life as much as we possibly can we are planning to continue our travels and turn this year into a little mini world tour with a trip down to Costa Rica shortly. Pay rent here, pay rent there, you pay it somewhere and we'd rather pay it somewhere new and exciting. So I will be linking this blog up to the one to document Costa Rica when I have it ready. In the meantime, enjoy some videos.....   :)

New Brighton Beach

Southshore

Willowbank Wildlife Reserve

Franz Josef Glacier

Sunday, May 2, 2010

And the dream fragments...

Friday April 30th

Well we are pretty much at the end. In a few days we will be at the Christchurch airport to board the long flight home. I don’t really look forward to that, the journey between here and Michigan is really uncomfortably long, but not much can be done about that. One thing I can say though is that this has not been a vacation. A vacation by definition is an escape from responsibilities and everyday living. That is not what this experience has been. We have actually lived here in New Zealand. I have worked. Greg has looked for work and endured the roller coaster of hopes and rejections that entails. We have paid bills, budgeted, grocery shopped, dealt with the government, public services and doctor’s appointments. This has been living in its true and normal sense in a lot of ways.
These last days are a full of curious contradictory emotions. On one hand, we are all pretty much ready to return to the states. I’d say go home but as Greg pointed out we don’t really have a home at the moment.  In considering that though I’m struck with the contradictory feeling that since we have lived here as normal people for the past 3 months that in a way this has taken on a sense of home.  Many people say home isn’t a place but a feeling, often comprised of being with the people we associate with that feeling of home. I think it’s that and also the creation of patterns and habits. Three months is enough time to develop that patterned sense of normalcy that feels like home. What we miss about the states, which is of course what we look forward to, is in many ways just the creature comforts  like familiar food,  good beds, the convenience of unlimited internet.  Those things are all really nice, but after you get use to them again they are pretty empty. We go back to Michigan because it’s where we must go due to practical reasons, but it isn’t really home for us. In truth Greg and I have yet to find an actual physical place that feels like home to us.  When we first arrived here, those first four to six weeks, we thought that this perhaps could be home. Of course with time we realize that as lovely as the first impressions were we didn’t really fit well here as much of the values here in Kiwi land just don’t work with what we’re looking for in life. So we travel on, back to Michigan and from there who knows. 

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Sunday May 2nd


I started this blog entry a few days ago and then put it aside as I knew I had more to say just not the words to say it. Last night Greg and I went out for a nightly visit to the beach. This has been a routine we have done pretty much every night here, a ritual of appreciation for the blessings of being able to be here and having a beach as practically our front yard. The night before last, Saturday, we went out a discovered a group of teenagers had a bonfire going, a rare occurrence as the city doesn’t allow beach fires for reasons I don’t know.  They had also found a small sofa left on the side of the road and had brought it down. Last night it was still there so Greg and I sat on the sofa under the vast starry sky and watched the silvery moon light edged waves roll in. It was wonderful and surreal and a fitting reminder to just how special being able to do what we’ve done has been. This morning I woke not wanting to return to the states at all. Not because of a sofa on the beach but because I understand now that the things we are returning to are pretty much available everywhere. I enjoyed being here, far away from what was my life and people I know. The things I miss such as good beds, good food and good internet, are actually available most places if you look hard enough. And the things that can’t be found can often be replaced with other things. Celia has adapted to being here as much as we all have.  If we had been able to stay a better house would have been found along with all those creature comforts we missed. It simply would have taken some time for after all things are just things and you acquire them in the process of building a life.  We would have liked a better opportunity to build a life here but unfortunately we came at a time when the doors to immigrants are rather closed.  Though ironically a guy we know actually offered to sign paperwork for a work visa application for Greg a few days ago. Unfortunately it’s simply too late.
I’ve enjoyed my time here. Most morning I get up, make some rather horrible coffee, and drink it on the patio in the warmth of the morning sun while listening to the waves in the quiet moments between traffic. We complained about the traffic sounds, but those will be there when we get back to Michigan and the sound of the ocean will not.  I will have good coffee again, but no sunny ocean filled airy patio to enjoy it on.  I will miss being here. Greg has often complained that despite having all these amazing experiences traveling they all have one bad aspect in common, they always end. I understood mentally what he meant at the time to an extent as all endings are sad, but now as I enter into the ending of my first long experience abroad and understand that most of the experiences like this will end with feelings similar to this I understand it much better.  While I don’t look forward to more endings I know there will be more exciting beginnings and maybe, eventually, one of these experiences will not end but become real in that we will finally find a place we truly can call home.