New Zealand wrap-up

The thing about backpacking is that it's nothing like being at home. I don't really know anyone, I'm always a little bit lost, and I do all sorts of things that I don't do back in America. But in my last couple of days in Auckland, I've noticed that I don't really feel like a tourist anymore, a feeling which was encouraged by a couple of events that told me that if I stay any longer I will in fact become a permanent resident.

Event #1: having to avoid someone in the street

Do you remember Matt from my first hostel? The one that yelled at his ex-girlfriend from the roof? He wasn't my favorite person I had met on the trip, and when I hopped off the bus from Rotorua, he was walking right up the street in the direction I needed to go. With some quick thinking I abruptly turned down a side street until he had passed, which made me feel kind of stupid, but also relieved that I wouldn't have to walk with him. But seeing someone I knew in a random part of a foreign city with a million people in it was the first sign that I was no longer completely out of my element.

Event #2: awkward conversation about work at the grocery store

The next night, as I browsed the noodle section, I ran into a girl I new from my second hostel. We had spoken a few times, so I asked her how the job hunt was going, and she asked me how the project was going, and then we both took our baskets separate ways when we ran out of things to say. This also doesn't happen when you're a foreigner somewhere.

Even #3: getting asked directions and actually knowing the way

Confused tourist: "Excuse me, I'm trying to catch a bus. I'm looking for the transport center. Is it up this way?"
Me: "Are you leaving from Britomart?"
Relieved tourist: "Yes, that's it."
Me: "It's ten minutes down Queen St. the other way. It's on the right just before the water. If you get to the ferry building you've gone too far."
Grateful tourist: "Thanks!"

So I'm not really a tourist here anymore. It's time to move on. But being comfortable in this city doesn't mean I haven't spent most of my three weeks here outside my comfort zone. Here's a list of things I did for the first time while in New Zealand:

-made fried rice
-jumped off a bridge
-went to a movie by myself
-approached 50 people I don't know and made them talk to me
-rolled down a hill in a ball
-climbed a volcano cone
-been told I look Japanese (for an explanation of this one, see below)
-legally bought something at a liquor store
-seen a kiwi
-read "Hamlet"

So there was this girl, Akiko, who like most of the Japanese people in our hostel had come to work in New Zealand for a year to learn English. She would come to our hostel every night to hang out and practice speaking. So one night we were all sitting around and we started asking all the Japanese people to teach us some Japanese. After a few minutes of trading vocabulary in our respective languages, Akiko said to me, "You look Japanese," to which my German roommate replied, "Yeah she gets that all the time. It's the hair." After a minute of going over all of my very non-Japanese features and rehashing the conversation, we discovered the problem. It turns out that she meant to say that I sounded Japanese, since I had repeated something well. But for the rest of my time there people would periodically bring up how Japanese I look.

Anyway, despite all the fun I had in new Zealand, it is clearly time to move on. So, Australia here I come!