Departure Day - Auckland

Auckland is the largest city I’ve been in for over five months.  As I sit in Auckland Public Library just hours before I grab my bags from Frienz Backpackers to catch a shuttle to the airport, I’m surprised at how relaxed and prepared I am to complete this spectacular journey. Maybe It’s because my trip ended when I sold my bike, or when I walked out of my final lecture, or when Kelly left, or when I said goodbye to Christchurch for the second time after missing my first flight, or after my last adventure deep sea fishing with a crazy old kiwi on his home-made, wooden, and continuously leaking fishing boat.  Most likely it was when I dropped off the DePauw girls at the airport to begin their journey – the same place I had landed and the first thing I had experienced here.  The new AustraLearn students were wide-eyed and ready, cheerful and outgoing, full of aspiration, hope, confusion, mystery, and wonder.  I had gone full circle. 

 

Leaving Christchurch, I made my rounds, shed some tears, shared some memorable moments from the semester, sulked over the ‘finals’ – my final NZ beer, final view from my room, final $3 fish/chips from Captain Ben’s, final walk to campus, final trip to town, final shower, final penis drawn on my roommate’s door…  It’s hard to accept that this is the first and last experience of its kind for me.  As I flew up and out of my five-month home, the sun crawled over the pacific and I thought it to be an interesting paradox as the sun was setting on my experience.  I’ve been out of Christchurch for over a week now, cramped up in a van with two girls or sharing a room of eight beds with seven strangers, and the luxury and privacy of a single room sounds glorious. 

 

My legs are quite sore, having walked up and down every street in Auckland twice with nowhere to be – visiting parks, watching people, taking myself out on dates, reading, following my nose, seeing sights, finding views, following blood trails, acquainting myself with my own mind.  I’m a bum with a bed.  The vastness of this world, the complexity and the intricacies are something I’ll never be able to grasp – the cultures, the mentalities, the lifestyles, the ambitions (or lack there-of).  I’m on an island thousands of miles from anywhere else, in a city overlooking two major endless bodies of water (Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea), yet I still feel like I am in the heart of the world. 

 

To the three of you that actually follow my blog, I should probably apologize for not having any posts for the last three months or so… Once I returned to Christchurch from the three-week mid-semester extravaganza, I felt as though it would take me another three weeks to write about it, and there aren’t words in the English language to describe the sights and feelings.  Also, after a break like that, I figured I should take it easy and not stress myself too much.  The weekends preceding the break were the most interesting anyway… I know the three of you fairly well, so I’ll show you pictures and tell you stories if you’d like.

 

They say you’re supposed to ‘find yourself’ while studying abroad.  Physically? I’m all there, though I’ve found I have a nasty bald spot on my upper right neck – should clear up in a few years. Socially? I’m a little quirky, but I know how to bend toward specific needs.  Financially? S.O.S. Mentally...? I may be more aware, more cultured, more independent, more confident, more experienced, but as I look retrospectively on how I’ve changed here, it seems as though it’s not quite how I had expected.

 

• I’ve become extremely fond of biology, and sometimes secretly wish I’d studied it instead.  Geology is my first love, however, and the basis for all biology.
• I’ve become agnostic on the topic of man-made global warming.
• Despite what my mother thinks, I’ve actually begun to appreciate where I grew up, (especially the system of learning! Go to hell British system!!) and the endless diversity and opportunities the US has for me.
• Being carefree and easy, beautiful views, and a blank schedule have become almost tiresome, but always welcomed.
• If I don’t eat Cadbury chocolate after every meal, I get queasy. 
• I’ve accepted the fact that I’ll never be the best at anything, but I retain hope in the possibility of being second best at multiple things. 

 

As it goes, the more I learn and experience, the more inferior and ignorant I seem to become.  When I ponder my future, I drown in possibilities.  The pieces of my life puzzle are still spewed sporadically on the coffee table, many of which still show the cardboard underside, and I can’t quite seem to find all the border pieces, as if it might need room to expand. 

 

In response to the comments about my blog title, “A Boy’s Adventure,” I don’t really ever plan on losing the status of ‘boy’.

 

“So we are drawn to the natural world, aware that it contains structure and complexity and length of history as well, at orders of magnitude greater than anything yet conceived in human imagination.  Mysteries solved within it merely uncover more mysteries beyond.  For the naturalist every entrance into a wild environment rekindles an excitement that is childlike in spontaneity, often tinged with apprehension – in short, the way life ought to be lived, all the time.” – Edward O. Wilson, The Future of Life

 

Thank you New Zealand, 2009!