Good evening. I return to the land of blog, bearing more news of Auckland life. Last week, the wonderful C was away on a University field trip, uncontactable and untraceable, and I was left to my own devices. Being an amazing girlfriend, I awoke with her at 6am on Sunday, walked her to the ferry terminal and waved goodbye, got completely lost on the way home, and finally returned to bed. I got up a couple of hours later as I had arranged to go to the beach with Tingting. This occurred, and we had a most pleasant time at Mission Bay, the closest beach to Auckland. Mostly we sunbathed and chatted whilst drinking iced coffee, until T kindly let slip that I had moved to live in a hotbed of volcanic activity.
Yes, I know. I really should have looked up where I was going to live before making the decision. Alternatively I should have taken Geography past year nine. Turns out Auckland is just one big volcanic catastrophe waiting to happen, and the fun part is, they don't even know where it might erupt! Although I love to be kept on my toes, this was taking it a bit far, and I had a mini freak-out. Very quickly I realised that this was futile, and I can't exactly do much about it now I'm here, so I will just say: if I get erupted I LOVE YOU ALL. Drama aside, volcanoes have made the landscape here pretty stunning, and T took me up Mount Eden later in the day, a dead volcano just outside of town. The ascent is pretty steep, but once at the top there are stunning views of the Auckland area for miles around- mountains, sea, more volcanoes...
On Monday, I received a job offer and three interviews. This was a welcome change from the soul-destroying job-search, and I decided to go with the offer. I will be working for Inland Revenue in a customer service capacity, which is pretty different from everything I have ever done. Although my passion in life is working in healthcare, I really wanted to do something different whilst in NZ, and this job fits the bill. One of the most enjoyable aspects is that it is Monday to Friday. That's right. No weekends/nights/stupid hours. I can be a normal person for a few months, for the first time in my life. Yes, yes... I know what you're thinking.
Throughout the week, I was stressing out about my medical applications. The deadline for offers was fast approaching, and from desperately stalking chatrooms I gathered that most people had heard back. Every morning I would go to my laptop, heart rate would increase, then annoyance at lack of messages would settle in. Also, I was waiting to hear when we were to be booted out of the flat into our intended place. A couple of times I got told I would be moving the next day, only to be told later that it wasn't happening. I was happy staying put for the time being, so the complete lack of organisation/communication between landlord and his missus was forgiven.
During the week, I did some reading, went to a few ballet classes, had a friend over to watch a film, and went to a meeting of Auckland Uni's campus feminists. I also cooked a lot, including a delicious tofu, coconut and kumara curry, and loads of spinach. On Friday, I was invited by a psych prof at Auckland Uni (who I met for coffee the previous week) to attend a meeting of students that he supervises, as we share some research interests. The meeting was full of lovely people with some fascinating research projects ranging from disability technologies, to blood-spatter analysis, to wellbeing, to S&M. There was also an impressive spread of vegan food, and at the pub afterwards the prof invited me and C to go rock climbing the day after. Let's do it!
I returned from Glenn Innes, where the psych campus is situated, and arrived at the ferry terminal just in time. I was walking along not recognising where I was when C ran up to me out of nowhere. There may have been some joyous squealing involved, then we walked back to the hotel to get ready for a burlesque show with Mel and Kate which was starting in an hour's time. Before I go on any longer, I will give C a chance to write her version of last week's events, but there is much more to tell since our reunion!
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