Crossing Between Two Islands

Flying Kiwi: Monday 21.01.08

[Sorry for not updating about my tour; I'm getting really lazy about it. I'll try to do better this week!]

So we arrived in Wellington where we had to remove all our luggage from the bus because once we crossed on the ferry into the South Island, we'd be traveling on a different bus. It was such a hassle to lug it over to the nearest backpacker to store it for a couple hours while we wandered the capital of New Zealand. Even worse, there wasn't much to do in the four hours we had because it happened to be a bank holiday, and most of the stores were closed. I did get to buy a couple of used books at Arty Bee's, and go through a couple shops. I even lost my sweater in one store, and I was more than a 15-min-walk away when I realized it was gone, so I just bought another one. Didn't do much else, besides using the internet. Sam didn't want to keep wandering, so he left to go take a nap at the backpacker.

Wellington is a nice city. It's not like Auckland where all the stores can be found on one street and half of them are souvenir shops. They also have nice museums and such, but I didn't bother going to any, although I should have. I think it's one of the things I really regret not doing here in New Zealand: visiting museums and exhibits about the country, the people, their history. Someone back home told me that I should really make an effort to immerse myself into kiwi culture, that it's an important aspect and reason for traveling, and I think I have in some areas, but I could have done more. But yeah, I like Wellington. It's shaped like a bowl, where the main central business district is right at the bottom, and the homes and residental areas are in the surrounding areas.

At 4pm, everyone had to go get our stuff out of storage and make our way over to the ferry. That also happened to be a hassle, because the schedules of the shuttles was off, due to the bank holiday, and we were waiting for quite a while. The ferry was huge - the one other time I was on a ferry was across Lake Michigan when I was like 8, and since our family was driving, we stayed down on the vehicle area, so I don't even remember how big that one was or what it was like. But this ferry had nice lounges, televisions, couches, cafes, etc etc. I felt a bit seasick, so I basically just took a nap. The ride was 3 hours, which felt really long, since we take a break every 1.5 hours for a rest stop when we're on the bus.

There wasn't much else to do that day - we got to our backpacker at 9:30pm - but Sam and I did indulge ourselves late that night with some ramyun. Yum.

Other Thoughts:

- It's Easter Weekend. How did you spend your Good Friday? How will you spend your Easter Sunday? I find it extremely ironic and sad that New Zealanders take this history-altering event seriously, but not in the way that they should. No one works on Good Friday, and on Easter Sunday, and some even get Easter Monday off (yes, I have a 4-day weekend). It's actually illegal here for most places to be operating on those days (Fri&Sun). But as I listened to my co-workers talk about their plans for the weekend, I realized that no one saw it as being more than a short vacation. No profound meaning for any of them. One of them even laughed when church was mentioned. For me, let's just say that I am taking this weekend more seriously than I have ever done, and that God is good.

- Can't wait for this week to be over. After that, Australia to see our friends, and then our homecoming back into Chicago. Work has been horribly slow, and I feel like this last week will be even harder, since we've been having a lot of early clock-outs, so much so that now I expect work to be over by 3pm. That's not bound to continue.

- Talking about work, this past year has made me realize that I don't want to continue my studies into a career that I couldn't care less about. I picked mechanical engineering simply because I didn't think there was anything else I could pick. It just seemed to fit because I'm good at math and physics, and engineers make a good living, but I'm certainly not gung-ho about it. The job I'm at now is so easy, but so monotonous and tedious. So many of the ladies I work with have done this for most of their lives. That's not a bad thing. A lot of parents, mine included, have worked at jobs that they didn't enjoy or bring in a lot of money, but they worked hard in order to support their families. Makes me realize that money really isn't everything, that life can be so simple. Life can still be good, fulfilling, satisfying, without the luxuries the world tells us we need. It's Christ, and caring for others, that brings purpose and meaning into my life. But I figure that if I'm going to be doing something for the rest of my life, I might as well do something I would enjoy. Isn't that one of the biggest things people wish for? To have a career that isn't work, but something that you enjoy? So the big conclusion I came to is that I'm not returning to Boston University. I'm not going through with my mechanical engineering degree. You're probably wondering what I've got in mind in lieu of this, and I have some things in mind, but it's all in the air. Sooner or later God will let me know exactly what He wants. I am trusting in that.