well, i've been here for a full month now, and i still don't really have an answer to that question. i didn't really have an actual plan before i got here and what small idea of a plan i had isn't going so well so far.
i'm still job hunting, though i think i've gotten to the point where if i don't change tactics soon i'm defiantly not going to find anything. if i were back in the States i would be hounding everyone i know about publishing jobs (which isn't strictly true but it's easy to think that way from over here) or if things got desperate hit up BN. but here i don't really have the right contacts to get the inside line on jobs and i don't seem to have the social skills (or experience) to get a cafe job. i've already dropped my resume off at just about every bookstore in town. (i didn't give one to the Cookbook shop because it was tiny and there were two people already working there when i went so it seemed like they might need less staff not more.) i don't quite know the ethics/procedure for nagging people into a job. i did start reading What Color is Your Parachute the other day (thanks for the advice Tynan) and it was one of the only books about job hunting that didn't just make me feel more crazy. some of it's advice was a little hokey and would be more useful to me back in the US (and i still want to go back in time and break all the fingers of that first asshole who wrote a god damn thank you note after an interview) but it did a good job of talking me down. at least for now, looking at moneys (which is being annoying in it's own way, more on that later) i have till the end of July to find something before i don't really have a choice.
part of me wouldn't mind getting to the point where i just have to give up and go, i'm still not really liking Auckland all that much. i've meet a few people by now which is nice but so many of the people i meet are travelers and in and out of town, i haven't really made any Kiwi friends yet which could change but we'll see. i'd love to be here on a for real vacation, just going around the country and seeing all the cool things i keep hearing about but actually living here isn't all that exciting. i've seen a bunch of places in Auckland that i like but would like more if i had someone here (i've seen over a dozen places i'd love to go to brunch with Blyth, Caitlin and Kristina) and i don't really have the cash at the moment to get the best out of the city.
on that: because my old bank got bought during the Great Banking SNAFU last year i've been sort of half way between two banks since october. now if my new bank had just gotten on the ball and taken over my account i would have done and international money transfer to my bank here, but because they didn't and there aren't any physical branches near my parents (though there is one of the new bank in walking distance) they couldn't start the process there either. so i had to write my self a check, which i was told would take three weeks to clear. that would have been monday, as it stands now i only really have 40 NZD in my account. though at some point soon there will be 1100NZD in there. so at the moment i'm being super frugal and tip-towing into credit card debt.
which is whatever i guess.
i'd really like to give this country the chance it deserves but beyond money i don't know how much longer i can last down here. i spend a lot of time alone, which could be ok if that were an active choice but i'm living in a really solitary apartment in a town with the kind of night life where you really need to know where you're going. i think this city might be making me exaggerate how bad i am socially, like maybe i'm not as shy as i think i am, i'm just in a city where breaking into social networks is harder or at least works differently then back home?
well depending on how things go i might be back there sooner rather then later, though i keep realizing that if i go home before it hits summer here i will have the unique joy of winter part two. lovely.
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