so new digs, a job (which i learned on Sunday will definitely last till November) and all kinds of things in the work. an update on "The plan" is in order.
really up till now there never really was a plan. there was the amorphous "i'm going to New Zealand" phase, then the "Auckland is going to be awesome" phase, then several iterations of the "oh shit" phase and finally we have "The Plan":
now-December 3rd:
-work at Borders, accumulate monies (repay Amy (super shout out thanks BTW)), read books from the library, receive mail (hint hint), send mail, take day trips (so many volcanoes i can visit), meet new people/make friends, hate the Auckland bus system, go to the gym (more on this later?), work on art projects (suggestions welcome), watch some of the movies and TV i have on my hard drive, get to my two favorite cafes as much as i can considering the crappy bus system, go to art openings, blog, relearn how to cook (and relearn how to shop for said cooking), have a thanksgiving fest, and some other as yet unknown things of fun, leisure and adventure ...
this is where things get interesting
December 3rd till at least half way through January but i'm hoping till early February:
i'm going to be working on a farm/resort.
not just any farm/resort, this farm/resort:
http://www.autumnfarm.com/
a gay, clothing optional hippy farm.
yea crazy right. i'm figuring because Auckland/New Zealand is not going to be a place to advance my career (though i guess that would require having something approaching a career in the first place but that is baggage for another post) i should do something weird/exciting/adventurous so that i get something out of this country other then nice pictures and a bunch of stuff with the All Black's logo on it. a lot of the people who come down here to work/putz around for a bit end up doing some fruit picking or farming work (apparently many of the crap ton of Germans do it) and while i don't really want to do it as a form of employment the idea of doing it as a sort of adult (not in the XXX way) summer camp really appeals to me. sort of a vacation from my normal existence but one where i'm doing something productive and still having fun. i have been wanting to learn about growing food for a while (the slow food and urban homesteading movements are big in SF) and just generally do something a little more radical then i usually do. i have this vision of working hard on crops and cooking and general interesting estate maintenance/handyman kind of stuff for a few hours each day then reading on a beach or a nice green field in some small item of clothing (or if i get brave enough nothing at all?) then some kind of magical campfire events at night and some nice yoga sessions in the woods. obviously i don't really know what to expect but i'm still really looking forward to it. i've decided to do it when it is summer here as opposed to just hopping on a bus now because i think that will make it a more enjoyable experience, and give me time in the city to make money.
so yea gay naked farm for two months. neat right?
February and some of March:
fuck around, go on crazy adventure/travel buses (google Kiwi Experience and or Stray) do all the fun silly backpacker touristy things meet drunk college kids and freaks from the UK and Australia and Germany and the US, get drunk, eat lots of bad food, talk about the gay farm. send postcards from lots of places, just vacation basically. by this point i will probably picked a date to come home so it will be a "run out the clock" kind of mood. i'm hoping to get in some Australia travel and maybe an island or two before i head back but it will depend on how much i bank here in Auckland.
late March:
return triumphantly to the US just as its getting nice (weather wise, i'm hoping that economically things will be better too), parties in SF and NYC, consistent internet, real public transit systems, currency that doesn't have the queen on it, showing all my pictures to everyone.
but most importantly figuring out what's next.
still not clear on that, "The Plan" kind of drops off a cliff at the end of next march, but then i'm hoping by then i will have added to it. i know i want to take a road trip across the US but not really how or why (i mean why in a narrative thrust way, they why is because its an awesome idea), i could go to grad school or move to Austin who knows. i'm hoping some of my time here and in the naked woods of a gay farm will help me figure out a "what's next"
or i'll mooch off my parents for a month or two and go from there?
stay tuned for "The Plan 2: in a State"
18 August, 2009
12 August, 2009
i'm not moving again/i want to move again
so i'm going to try and keep this less whiny then all my other posts. (emphasis on try)
as some of you know for the last two weeks i was camped out at a hostel as i looked for a new place to live, which was its own stressful and annoying story. anyway i have a new place but i'm feeling conflicted about it. i'm trying to figure out how to deal with that.
i liked a lot of the things at the hostel i was staying at (BK hostel) it was kind of nice being back in a dorm like atmosphere and having a kitchen after a month without one was nice. even their bathroom was nice if really cold. i even had a manageable useful Internet connection. really the only thing i would have changed from there was having a roommate and even that wasn't so bad, he was hardly around and when he was he was nice.
but living in a hostel doesn't really feel like living here (not that im super attached to living here, my new plan (upcoming post) involves staying here till the end of November, which did it's fair part to cramp my apartment hunt im not going to lie.)
so i looked for places, and for the most part didn't find much. one place was WAAAAAY to far out, most places didn't get back to me, on place i looked at were great till i mentioned that i would be leaving at the end of November, and then there was the place i am now.
now my problem is not so much that i hate this place, i don't, i just have a few problems that are keeping me from like it a lot. the room its self is awesome, its big and comfortable (once i figured out the heater) and has plenty of storage for all the crap i've accumulated. the house it's in is also nice its big and in the really posh part of town, it is kind of more like a fancy long term boarding house, which by it's self is fine. really my problem with the place comes down to two factors, everything else is either great or at least not a problem.
the first problem, crappy internet now really that is kind of a problem with the whole country (see previous post) but here the problem comes down to the fact that there are a bunch of people living here sharing one connection which makes it even more glitchy. it doesn't seem to be as much of a problem during the day (today is my day off) but it is really bad when i get home from work and just want to vedge out in front of the Internet for a while. also it isn't good at just leaving me on during the day so that all the people back home who are asleep by the time i get home from work can leave me messages (note to all of you, email would probably be better from here out). as internet is my one big life line to all of you its going to take me a while to adjust to that and find ways around it, i demand more e-mails (and seriously yell at me if i haven't updated this in more then a week.) and working more on the other stuff in my life i could be doing like writing and art projects. i think i can get over this hurdle i just have to go through an adjustment period.
the other problem, which might be bigger but i can't tell yet, is that this place is kind of far out from the parts of town i like. in another city this wouldn't be such a big deal, get on a bus or subway and your back where you like in 10-15 minutes, but Auckland's public transit system is pretty embarrassing. its 15 minutes just to get to a useful bus, a 25 minute to the place i work three days a week and takes between 30-45 minutes to get back to the cafe and bars that i like (well bar, singular) and i haven't commuted to the place i work the other two days a week so we'll see about that. really i'm going to have to plan my days so that if i do something cool i leave from work and don't come home first because once i'm here getting back out seems really daunting. this might change as it gets warmer and if i can figure out some shortcuts or just get used to it but for now it is also putting a damper on my excitement for this place.
really i'm just taking longer to settle in here because i feel like i mostly took the place because i was a bit backed into a corner and it isn't my ideal place. i'm worried that the next three months here will be more challenging then i want to deal with on top of other things (i already kind of hate my job, in the same way i hated it when it was my job back home) but i could also find great ways to deal with the situation here and be all better and awesome for them.
i'm thinking of joining a gym.
as some of you know for the last two weeks i was camped out at a hostel as i looked for a new place to live, which was its own stressful and annoying story. anyway i have a new place but i'm feeling conflicted about it. i'm trying to figure out how to deal with that.
i liked a lot of the things at the hostel i was staying at (BK hostel) it was kind of nice being back in a dorm like atmosphere and having a kitchen after a month without one was nice. even their bathroom was nice if really cold. i even had a manageable useful Internet connection. really the only thing i would have changed from there was having a roommate and even that wasn't so bad, he was hardly around and when he was he was nice.
but living in a hostel doesn't really feel like living here (not that im super attached to living here, my new plan (upcoming post) involves staying here till the end of November, which did it's fair part to cramp my apartment hunt im not going to lie.)
so i looked for places, and for the most part didn't find much. one place was WAAAAAY to far out, most places didn't get back to me, on place i looked at were great till i mentioned that i would be leaving at the end of November, and then there was the place i am now.
now my problem is not so much that i hate this place, i don't, i just have a few problems that are keeping me from like it a lot. the room its self is awesome, its big and comfortable (once i figured out the heater) and has plenty of storage for all the crap i've accumulated. the house it's in is also nice its big and in the really posh part of town, it is kind of more like a fancy long term boarding house, which by it's self is fine. really my problem with the place comes down to two factors, everything else is either great or at least not a problem.
the first problem, crappy internet now really that is kind of a problem with the whole country (see previous post) but here the problem comes down to the fact that there are a bunch of people living here sharing one connection which makes it even more glitchy. it doesn't seem to be as much of a problem during the day (today is my day off) but it is really bad when i get home from work and just want to vedge out in front of the Internet for a while. also it isn't good at just leaving me on during the day so that all the people back home who are asleep by the time i get home from work can leave me messages (note to all of you, email would probably be better from here out). as internet is my one big life line to all of you its going to take me a while to adjust to that and find ways around it, i demand more e-mails (and seriously yell at me if i haven't updated this in more then a week.) and working more on the other stuff in my life i could be doing like writing and art projects. i think i can get over this hurdle i just have to go through an adjustment period.
the other problem, which might be bigger but i can't tell yet, is that this place is kind of far out from the parts of town i like. in another city this wouldn't be such a big deal, get on a bus or subway and your back where you like in 10-15 minutes, but Auckland's public transit system is pretty embarrassing. its 15 minutes just to get to a useful bus, a 25 minute to the place i work three days a week and takes between 30-45 minutes to get back to the cafe and bars that i like (well bar, singular) and i haven't commuted to the place i work the other two days a week so we'll see about that. really i'm going to have to plan my days so that if i do something cool i leave from work and don't come home first because once i'm here getting back out seems really daunting. this might change as it gets warmer and if i can figure out some shortcuts or just get used to it but for now it is also putting a damper on my excitement for this place.
really i'm just taking longer to settle in here because i feel like i mostly took the place because i was a bit backed into a corner and it isn't my ideal place. i'm worried that the next three months here will be more challenging then i want to deal with on top of other things (i already kind of hate my job, in the same way i hated it when it was my job back home) but i could also find great ways to deal with the situation here and be all better and awesome for them.
i'm thinking of joining a gym.
coming soon i promise
so i didn't realize just how long it had been since my last post.
and a real through post is coming soon.
but right now i just need to vent and because of time zones non of you are online.
what the fuck is up with Kiwi Internet. i mean i know i'm kind of spoiled because of us Internet and what not but seriously, you are a fully developed wealthy nation participating in the modern world and i am in your largest city where 1/3rd of your population lives. why is it so hard to get an Internet connection that can handle downloading a few podcasts and not drop twice an hour for 15 minutes. all my us connections had issues which were annoying but this is just unacceptable. i just have no words for how frustrating it is. i'm not in some backwoods tinny town or on a farm (which i'm planning on going to one but more on that in the future) i'm in a bustling metropolis and in one of the posh parts of town, and Internet is my best connection to the people i miss back home especially consistent Internet as i'm at work for most of the time you all are awake and not at work.
and i don't even know how to fix this, ugh ...
and a real through post is coming soon.
but right now i just need to vent and because of time zones non of you are online.
what the fuck is up with Kiwi Internet. i mean i know i'm kind of spoiled because of us Internet and what not but seriously, you are a fully developed wealthy nation participating in the modern world and i am in your largest city where 1/3rd of your population lives. why is it so hard to get an Internet connection that can handle downloading a few podcasts and not drop twice an hour for 15 minutes. all my us connections had issues which were annoying but this is just unacceptable. i just have no words for how frustrating it is. i'm not in some backwoods tinny town or on a farm (which i'm planning on going to one but more on that in the future) i'm in a bustling metropolis and in one of the posh parts of town, and Internet is my best connection to the people i miss back home especially consistent Internet as i'm at work for most of the time you all are awake and not at work.
and i don't even know how to fix this, ugh ...
26 July, 2009
Hope Springs Eternal ...
my bank account could use some work.
feeling less stressed and panicked then for my last post.
just booked another week at a hostel for Tuesday and have actually done a little apartment hunting.
still not sure if i'm going to stay more then the 6 weeks i'm definitely here but i'm less dead set against getting out of the country.
just need to get back the slight bit of stability i lost in loosing my place.
if anyone hears of someone in Auckland who needs an adorable if neurotic flatmate let me know.
ok more when i get regular internets back.
miss you, send me e-mail based love till i have an address again.
feeling less stressed and panicked then for my last post.
just booked another week at a hostel for Tuesday and have actually done a little apartment hunting.
still not sure if i'm going to stay more then the 6 weeks i'm definitely here but i'm less dead set against getting out of the country.
just need to get back the slight bit of stability i lost in loosing my place.
if anyone hears of someone in Auckland who needs an adorable if neurotic flatmate let me know.
ok more when i get regular internets back.
miss you, send me e-mail based love till i have an address again.
23 July, 2009
What Now !?!?
this was going to be a post about my new job! which i will still cover:
i work at Borders, its a lot like working at Borders. if anything it's kind of a step back in my life but it's employment for the next 6 weeks. i'll take what i can get at the moment.
instead this is a post about how i now have to apartment hunt, or i was going to apartment hunt now i'm thinking of just staying at a hostel for the next 6 weeks then getting out of NZ before it strips me of all the dignity i have left.
... the explanation ...
so i'm about to head to my second day of work, i'm not exactly excited but i am at least kind of happy to be working. i step out into the hallway and the guy who lives next to me, and is the floor manager for (and son of) the landlord stops me to talk to me. he is a chubby and sweaty asian guy of indeterminate age, probably mid to late 20s but looks like a 10 year old. he proceeds to ask be who i am and what i'm doing there, i explain that i am living here while the guy who rents the place is back in Canada. i am paying him rent but just what he pays (though that turned out to be a bit complicated). see before i even got to Auckland i asked this guy 3 times if things were going to be cool with his landlord, and he assured me he spoke to them and it was fine, and not like i need to lie/fake OK it was supposed to be for real OK. so when this sweaty chubby boy tells me that it isn't OK i'm confused and annoyed, then he explains that i can either sign my own contract (for more per week) on this shitty place, or leave and pay rent on the time from when he spoke to me till i do go, and i have to pay a bond for the key card for the front door and elevator. i didn't have much time or will to fight as i had to head down the hill to work, so i spent most of the day with it festering in the back of my head. then when i got home i had to talk to the sweaty boy like 4 more times and his mother too who didn't seem to contribute much to the conversation.
now if this had happened last week when i was still unemployed i would have just called up Air New Zealand and gotten the hell out of the country by the end of the week. but now i have this job, and it's only a 6 week contract (though i would probably be able to stay on at the end? i think?) but i hate calling out sick so i'm not going to just give up on this job two days into it. so now i have to decide what i want to do.
i started to look at apts online and even walked a tremendous way to look at one this morning but as i was walking i started to think.
and i may have made a decision, i'm going to work the 6 weeks for Borders and maybe stay at a hostel for that time. then if i have some cash at the end of it do something exciting and then get on the next plane out of NZ.
i'm mostly just tired of putting so much energy into this city when i don't feel like i'm going to get even half as much back from it. and really in retrospect i should have just done the Holiday part of the visa and then maybe considered the working part. i miss stability and even if it means the stability of my parents couch for a few weeks or moths while i figure out a new plan i think i'd much rather it over the sort of rolling crisis that i feel like this place has been for me.
please give me advice if you have it.
and maybe things will change in the next week or 6 and i will have an all new plan. who knows.
i work at Borders, its a lot like working at Borders. if anything it's kind of a step back in my life but it's employment for the next 6 weeks. i'll take what i can get at the moment.
instead this is a post about how i now have to apartment hunt, or i was going to apartment hunt now i'm thinking of just staying at a hostel for the next 6 weeks then getting out of NZ before it strips me of all the dignity i have left.
... the explanation ...
so i'm about to head to my second day of work, i'm not exactly excited but i am at least kind of happy to be working. i step out into the hallway and the guy who lives next to me, and is the floor manager for (and son of) the landlord stops me to talk to me. he is a chubby and sweaty asian guy of indeterminate age, probably mid to late 20s but looks like a 10 year old. he proceeds to ask be who i am and what i'm doing there, i explain that i am living here while the guy who rents the place is back in Canada. i am paying him rent but just what he pays (though that turned out to be a bit complicated). see before i even got to Auckland i asked this guy 3 times if things were going to be cool with his landlord, and he assured me he spoke to them and it was fine, and not like i need to lie/fake OK it was supposed to be for real OK. so when this sweaty chubby boy tells me that it isn't OK i'm confused and annoyed, then he explains that i can either sign my own contract (for more per week) on this shitty place, or leave and pay rent on the time from when he spoke to me till i do go, and i have to pay a bond for the key card for the front door and elevator. i didn't have much time or will to fight as i had to head down the hill to work, so i spent most of the day with it festering in the back of my head. then when i got home i had to talk to the sweaty boy like 4 more times and his mother too who didn't seem to contribute much to the conversation.
now if this had happened last week when i was still unemployed i would have just called up Air New Zealand and gotten the hell out of the country by the end of the week. but now i have this job, and it's only a 6 week contract (though i would probably be able to stay on at the end? i think?) but i hate calling out sick so i'm not going to just give up on this job two days into it. so now i have to decide what i want to do.
i started to look at apts online and even walked a tremendous way to look at one this morning but as i was walking i started to think.
and i may have made a decision, i'm going to work the 6 weeks for Borders and maybe stay at a hostel for that time. then if i have some cash at the end of it do something exciting and then get on the next plane out of NZ.
i'm mostly just tired of putting so much energy into this city when i don't feel like i'm going to get even half as much back from it. and really in retrospect i should have just done the Holiday part of the visa and then maybe considered the working part. i miss stability and even if it means the stability of my parents couch for a few weeks or moths while i figure out a new plan i think i'd much rather it over the sort of rolling crisis that i feel like this place has been for me.
please give me advice if you have it.
and maybe things will change in the next week or 6 and i will have an all new plan. who knows.
15 July, 2009
First Epistle of Peter
i ended up seriously drunk last week at like 8:30 (free drinks were involved) and came home without much to do. i started chatting with my friend Tynan, because he has just the right kind of weird sleep schedule for good talks at random times. i was sad about things; homesickness, lack of purpose, poor social skills. and we had this conversation:
as most of you know he's right, maybe you haven't all gotten letters but most of the important people in my life have gotten postcards at this point, and not just lazy "wish you were here" postcards but thorough postcards often chosen just for you (a lamb for Caitlin, gay penguins for Dan). some people have gotten letters and more will in the near future. i have a whole fleet of stationary ready to go and if i weren't doing so much job hunting i would have sent out more. at the moment i'm working on a sort of complicated letter, Amy's boyfriend likes codes and puzzles and so i'm trying to create an interesting puzzle for him to solve. i even wrote a letter to my friend from elementary school who sent me his address on FB when i put up the status message "who should i write a letter to today" and that one was two pages.
and i can't tell you how much i'm jonsesing to send my first care package too. those of you who have received my "collages" and packages of goodness know how much i enjoy assembling a bizarre but well chosen assortment of stuff/crap/art/joy and shipping it off to someone. i've already been making mental lists in my head of all the things i want to get and make for people when i finally have some money coming in.
if you don't believe in my letter/gift prowess i can give you a list of references, all three of my SF roommates, Amy, Paul & Mayo, Becky, et al. really if i could find some way to be a professional gift giver or care package-ist it would be my ideal career.
oh and if you think i might not have your address you should probably send it to me. then check your mailbox (though i am on the other side of the pacific so you might want to give it some time)
love
-Peter-
Tynan: yeah but you send lettersthis conversation really made me feel much better, and i think says a lot about me. it's not that i have bad social skills i just have less instantly noticeable ones and ones that are a little more rare.
Tynan: carefully considered letters
Tynan: that's like going the full 110%
Me: what does that mean?
Tynan: it's indicative of your care for a person
Tynan:let's do a political analogy
Me: ok?
Tynan: an email is worth 10 votes
Tynan: a phone call, 100 votes
Tynan: a letter, 1000 votes.
Tynan: it's about effort
Tynan: conspicuous consumption, but instead it's like conspicuous feelings or something
Tynan: conspicuous effort
Me: wait i'm confused is this a problem or a good thing?
Tynan: you are the sort of person who sends letters
Tynan: sends collages
Tynan: sends postcards
Tynan: and they are all well-considered, at least as far as i've gotten
Me: thank you
Tynan: the implication is that you actually give a flying fuck about the recipient
Me: that is kind of the point
Tynan: i've dated guys who wouldn't send me even an email from their trip abroad
Tynan: but do you realize how rare that makes you?
Me: no?
Me: i think i get that its rare but i don't understand why
Tynan: maybe you're from a letter-sending clique or something
as most of you know he's right, maybe you haven't all gotten letters but most of the important people in my life have gotten postcards at this point, and not just lazy "wish you were here" postcards but thorough postcards often chosen just for you (a lamb for Caitlin, gay penguins for Dan). some people have gotten letters and more will in the near future. i have a whole fleet of stationary ready to go and if i weren't doing so much job hunting i would have sent out more. at the moment i'm working on a sort of complicated letter, Amy's boyfriend likes codes and puzzles and so i'm trying to create an interesting puzzle for him to solve. i even wrote a letter to my friend from elementary school who sent me his address on FB when i put up the status message "who should i write a letter to today" and that one was two pages.
and i can't tell you how much i'm jonsesing to send my first care package too. those of you who have received my "collages" and packages of goodness know how much i enjoy assembling a bizarre but well chosen assortment of stuff/crap/art/joy and shipping it off to someone. i've already been making mental lists in my head of all the things i want to get and make for people when i finally have some money coming in.
if you don't believe in my letter/gift prowess i can give you a list of references, all three of my SF roommates, Amy, Paul & Mayo, Becky, et al. really if i could find some way to be a professional gift giver or care package-ist it would be my ideal career.
oh and if you think i might not have your address you should probably send it to me. then check your mailbox (though i am on the other side of the pacific so you might want to give it some time)
love
-Peter-
07 July, 2009
What am I Doing Here?
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.
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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