Like most 25 year olds I have not yet given up on the fact that I need to get the most out of life. So after 24 years of playing life by the books I decided to close the book and buy a one-way plane ticket to New Zealand. Since my mom first told me that she did here student teaching in England I have always wanted to teach somewhere abroad and different. After a year of teaching in white suburbia Denver, the place I have known my whole life I decided to leave. Limited to English speaking countries I decided to go somewhere I could do something I have always wanted to do…SURF! but not give up what I have always loved… snowboarding. Turns out that there are these two volcanic islands in the south pacific that could provide me both and… oh yeah, turns out that they were in desperate need of physics teachers.
After enjoying a long summer of constant fun and bad decisions I got on a plane in mid September bound for Auckland. With out a place to stay or really anything figured out, I literally started from square one and walked off the plane. I had no idea what to do. I rented a car for the first day and spent the next two weeks staying in a camper van and random backpackers trying to figure out how the hell to start a new life. I knew my limited funding was going to run out quick so I got flat and a bartending job in Wellington and thought I could figure it out from there. Not being the sharpest knife, along with the laid back atmosphere down here I took me a while but I finally started to put stuff together. Got my teaching license, visa, tax number, drivers license and most importantly a teaching job for next year. Working in hospitality in a nontipping culture blows, but it will do for the summer.
My teaching job is in Napier, a costal town about four hours north of Wellington and doesn’t start until the end of January. I plan on keeping my job bartending at the Irish pub and living in Wellington throughout the summer and will move up north before school starts. I am enjoying Wellington and have made some good friends here and expect my second summer this year to also be full of fun and bad decisions. Wellington is the capital and has two of the countries eight universities that leads to a fairly young population and some good night life.
Back to one of the main reason I came down here, Surfing, I have looked into it but without a car or a surfboard it is hard and expensive to do, plus the water is still freezing. I was going to go rent a surfboard on my birthday and give it a go, but the lack of waves that day made it pointless. I hope to save up money and buy both a car and a surfboard this summer. Napier is close to some better surf breaks, so I am hoping for some weekend surf trips through the school year. Snowboarding doesn’t start until July. I have a school holiday from the 2nd-19th July and am planning a trip to the south island if any of you Americans would like to join. They also have a few ski fields on the North Island that will be close enough for weekends and sick days.
In reality I have not done much. I haven’t surfed, I haven’t snowboarded, I don’t know if I am getting the most out of life but, I sure am enjoying myself and learning heaps. Out of all the things that I have learned on this adventure the most important is that no matter what I do or what situation I place myself in, life seams to work out. Life is kind of simple that way. Happiness comes from my attitude towards new situations and if I try to learn from new thing I become happier. I have also learned some funny lingo like “Sweet As!”, “Heaps” and other weird kiwi word. I’m sure the surfing culture will add to my immature vocabulary.
No comments:
Post a Comment