Sunday, April 22, 2007

A Funny Kind of Normal

The second half of our semester started today here in Auckland, which is odd because everyone I know back home is chugging through the final weeks and warily looking at their upcoming finals. Mine are still just under two months away, which I suppose is how I make up that nice, long winter break I enjoyed last January/February.

Personally, I'm viewing this second half with a touch of trepidation. You see, before break my adventure was stretching on for an infinite amount of time, and on this side of break I've realized there's not much time left in the grand scheme of things. It's a scary thing to think about particularly because when you live somewhere you never do any of the "tourist" stuff- I have yet to actually climb up to the top of the Sky Tower pictured above, or go to the museum, or the world-class aquarium, or zoo, or anything like that. Must remedy this ASAP.

Of course, things aren't all bad thanks to a revelation I had on my way back from the Cook Islands a few days back. You know how whenever you come back from a great vacation you feel a little sad because the excitement is over, and you're going back to normalcy? Well I was feeling a little sorry for myself and then realized "no wait, I'm still going back to Auckland! This isn't normal at all, the adventure's still on!"

So things are normal, or at least as normal as things can get in an enchanting country with kind people and warm sunshine, but it's still rather exciting. Normal is a few months off yet.

3 comments:

Linda said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Linda said...

I felt the same way about the touristy stuff. Then I realized that 'hey wait a minute! my family is coming soon! they'll take me to all the touristy stuff! and even pay for it :) just have a bunch of touristy stuff on a to do list and then go with everyone (except me... waaaahhhh! i wanna go too!) stupid grad school :(

Yvette said...

You realize if you come here you can play with the kiwis and the keas and all the other fun, unique, awesome birds, right? Which is exactly what you do in grad school anyway! :-p

Really though, I think you should tell Borja that looking at NZ birds will help you understand the bowerbirds better... or something. You could spare a week for such an important task, right? I think so, but I'm slightly biased.