Love Field

Saying goodbye was much harder than I thought.

I know I haven't blogged for a while, but readjusting was a little harder than I had planned it to be. 17 months ago I decided I wanted to go to the States for a semester and 17 months later, the journey now over, all I do is wish I was back there.

The last couple of months have been a bit of a blur, my final weeks in the States went by far too quickly in a haze of travel, goodbyes and holidays I suddenly found myself in Dallas Love Field at the security gate, bawling my eyes out at the realization that 1) That this glorious little bubble that had been my life was about to pop and 2) That I had another 4-8 months of long distance ahead of me with my boyfriend. I had gone from being calm and collected to a complete wreck in the time it took me to check my bags in and walk to the security gate.

Ok yeah, I cried, lots of people cry at airports that's not completely out of the ordinary. What is a little out of the ordinary is when the guy working security leaves his station to give you some tissues and share his wisdom on love and relationships. He was a nice guy.

I had been so consumed by the act of leaving I didn't even think what it would be like to return home, I guess I thought it would be fine which is why I didn't think about it. People always talk about reverse culture shock, which i've never really been able to grasp - despite the fact I have done a fair amount of travel in my life. I can now say with absolute certainty, that I know what it is and that it sucks. The last 7 or 8 months feel like a dream, everything is the same at home, but different. My friends are still my friends, but they've moved on somewhat, shared experiences that I cannot possibly understand and moved on. Maybe they see this in me as well, i'm not sure, I try not to talk too much about Mizzou because I feel like that could get irritating, though I do get asked - things like "what was it like?", a fair question but how do you succinctly put that into words? It was many things - good and bad, there aren't enough adjectives to sufficiently describe my experience or how i'm feeling about it right now.

A little over a month later, i'm feeling a bit better about things. I began work in Auckland almost immediately after I came home and am so thankful for it, it gets me out of the house and acting like a normal person (I think if I didn't go to work I would probably be locking myself away in my room 24/7). I still have my days, but i'm sure they will lessen, especially with my next semester around the corner (3 more days boo) and the arrival of Drew in the country (3 more months yay).

As for my little corner in cyberspace, i'm definitely gonna try keep this chugging along quietly, but who knows - maybe uni will take over my life. I hope not.

America: The people

Debate

This is my final column for Debate for this semester, I will try very very hard to keep up with this from here on in - but we'll see. Like I have said many times, American work ethic is crazy, no wonder they go shit crazy when they study in New Zealand.

Being my final column for the year, I feel like I should say something meaningful about my time studying abroad, but to be honest – I have nothing. While you all may be wrapping up your school year and hurtling toward that little light at the end of the tunnel we all know as summer, I am only 7 weeks in to my semester and there are so many things I am yet to experience and discover about this country whose culture is as vast as it’s geography. Though, the longer I am here – the more certain aspects of American life become more apparent.

For one, this ain’t no fashion show. People here just don’t care, in fact, if need be 95% of the student population would have the potential to spontaneously work out if they ever felt the need. Honestly though, I’ve seen it all here, from your run of the mill running shorts through to polar fleece penguin pyjama pants – fashion is not considered to be an important part of school here, and you know what? I really enjoy it, it’s a liberating feeling knowing that people aren’t actively judging you based on whether your hair is in a top knot.

At first, this lack of fashion sense perplexed me, but now I understand. It’s not that they don’t care, it’s just that they are literally running around 24/7 and sneakers and running shorts are just more practical than Docs. College here is not just a facet of a person’s life, it’s a lifestyle in itself – these people have weekdays full of class, group meetings, club meetings, intramural sports then they have weekends of football and tailgating (which as you know from my last column is an experience in itself). Students here live and breathe college life, especially where I am in the School of Journalism.

Needless to say, I came in to this adventure with some very solid ideas of what I thought I was getting myself into, of course all of those expectations have been blown to oblivion. America has surprised me, I definitely didn’t expect American’s to be so welcoming and to be frank, I didn’t expect them to be so normal. Yes, you get your crazies – like the homeless guy downtown who plays the Didgeridoo, the old musician in Beverly Hills who tried to follow me back to my apartment, or the children in Dallas on the street corner who told me I was going to hell for my sins – but every place has its crazies, and in all honesty it makes our world a more interesting place to be.

I’m sad I can’t share the rest of my journey with you – my first real Halloween, or learning how to shoot a gun over Thanksgiving, or the first day of snow (ETA approximately 4 weeks – furry hat and boots have been purchased). But I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about just a few of my experiences. Studying abroad has certainly been hard at times, but I don’t regret one moment of it.

So for now, I’ll leave you trying to do what I said I would in my first column. I’m going with the flow, rolling with the punches and taking every day as it comes.

LA

Wow, well where do I begin. After around 22 hours of security, flying time and transit I arrived in LA on Friday night where my friend Sarah picked me up. LA is huge – really, words do not describe the scope of this city.

I spent the majority of my time in south LA near the USC campus with my friend Kacey. This area has been known in the past to be kinda dodgy, and it was a complete change from the streets of San Pedro where I had been staying the day before – though it was nothing too crazy.

My first stop was the fashion district in downtown LA. The fashion district is a market of sorts (think Victoria Park Market) with millions of shops and stalls selling just about everything. Like the majority of places like this, the stalls got more repetitive as you walked through and many places sold similar kinds of stuff. Kacey joked that by doing this I could visit Mexico without paying the $140 visa fee, when I got there I realised what she meant. This is honestly, one of the few times I’ve ever been a part of the minority. It wasn’t anything I had necessarily paid much attention to, but I think I did feel slightly intimidated by it all – that along with the heat made for a pretty interesting morning.

In the afternoon we headed to Venice Beach, which is known for its crazies. The main street facing the beach is lined with bars, crafty stalls and people trying to sell their wares (CD demos and the like) – the atmosphere was awesome though and it was absolutely packed. After laying on the beach for a while we went and watched these awesome roller blade dancers dancing to cheesy 70’s music and saved Kacey’s friend Cassie who had a flat tyre.

That evening I experienced 2 of the best things in the world. Mexican and Yogurt Land. The girls wanted me to experience authentic Mexican rather than what they called ‘cali mexican’ so we went to the smallest, dirtiest, dingiest place we could find.

It. Was. So. Good.

Of course, because I am in America, the portion sizes were way to massive for me, I could only manage half my burrito before I felt like I was about to explode, but it was sooo good. I’ll be definitely be eating more Mexican while I’m here.

Then there was Yogurtland later that evening.

OH. MY. GOD.

Yogurtland in a nutshell is basically self-serve frozen yogurt. You choose as many flavours as you want and as much as you want and then they have all these dry toppings like Granola and chocolate chips and fresh fruit – pretty much anything you could imagine. They have all these crazy flavours as well and it’s all sooooo good, plus they sell it by the ounce so it can be pretty cheap.

On Sunday our lives pretty much revolved around traffic – we spent the day driving around and taking in the sights. First we drove through Hollywood past all the stars and the Kodak theatre etc before heading to Mulholland Drive which is pretty much were all the famous people live – unfortunately no stars were spotted this time but the houses were massive and the views of the city were amazing. After that we headed down sunset and went to this cute little farmers market which was full of amazing looking food including all these weird mountain mushrooms and this fruit that’s a hybrid of a plum and an apricot which was green on the outside and purple on the inside… I don’t know whether you can get them in New Zealand but they’re AMAZING.

After that we tried to head to Malibu and sort of did, but because it was a Sunday and because it was their first weekend of decent weather the traffic was INSANE. We were pretty much at a standstill for the couple of hours we were driving down the Pacific Coast Highway. I really loved LA but to be honest I don’t think it would be a place I could ever live. Mainly because of the traffic and lack of public transport, it really is atrocious.

That evening Sarah had a family dinner at home so I stayed with Kacey at her place where we got through a couple of bottles of wine and had a bit of a catch up which was really cool. Kacey doesn’t have power in her apartment at the moment, though luckily she does have a plug just outside her door – so it was pretty funny having to switch all the plugs over so we could get some light from a lamp/watch a movie on the computer/charge something. Of course, I was pretty jetlagged and I fell asleep at like 7pm (the wine may have also had something to do with that though…) but after I woke up Kacey took me for a tour of her old university, USC which is just down the road.

USC is a private university and from the outside doesn’t look much, but when you actually walk through campus it is quite beautiful – apparently USC and UCLA are generally universities that are used in movies when they need a high school/college location so next time I watch a movie I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled!

Monday was my last day in LA – both Kace and Sarah were working but Kacey works in the Beverly Hills area so she dropped me off there to explore Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive. This place is obscene in so many ways and I think it really personifies everything you imagine LA to be – flashy cars, designer clothes and mansions. The neighbourhood itself is very beautiful – if a bit pretentious. The houses are incredible though I did have a bit of an issue trying to understand how these people can actually justify living the way they do, so that made me a bit uncomfortable but it is a beautiful area. Rodeo Drive was much of the same, all I could think of the whole time I was walking down there was Pretty Woman haha but it was a really nice area – very scenic and great for people watching.

My last night was spent drinking and eating – the three of us hit a couple of bars downtown including this awesome rooftop bar called the standard which had amazing views of the city and water beds. After that we headed to In N Out burger which is this famous takeout you can only get on the west coast… iiiit was pretty damn good. The burgers were amazing, not too keen on the fries coz they were covered in fake melted cheese but the burgers were really good. It was pretty much a heart attack in a box if I’m being honest but it needed to be done!

That’s all to report from LA, I’ve been in Columbia for 4 days now so I’ll send out another one of these soon – maybe after I get back from Chicago.

Hope everyone is well and remember to check out next weeks issue of debate (I’ll be in every 2^nd issue until the end of semester)

x

I need more time!

"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want."

~Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes

Stress is like that pervy uncle you have; he’s the person you feel kind of obliged to talk to at family reunions. You avoid him at all costs but if you are confronted by him you screw a smile on, nod politely and get the job done before getting the hell out of there.

And in the end, screwing the smile and getting on with it has its benefits. Come Christmas you’re reaping the rewards when Uncle Joe sends you a big fat cheque in his Christmas card.

At this point of the year, this is the attitude I’m trying to embrace.

In 3 weeks, I’m moving back home. Ten days after that I am hopping on a big silver bird and heading off to the University of Missouri to study Journalism.

While I am thrilled to be starting an adventure that even I’m surprised I pulled off, with the excitement comes a huge amount of stress.

At the moment I’m juggling my normal life: a life with my friends, time with the boyfriend, school and exams (crap!) and work commitments along with all the things that is brought about by student exchange. Meetings with heads of my department, student loan forms, international advisors to liaise with, consulate interviews to attend. Holiday visas, DS-109 forms, class choices, accommodation, SEVIS fees, RPL, flights, insurance, packing… you get the idea.

In a nutshell, right now I feel like not enough butter spread on too much bread. I’m giving a little to a lot of people when all I really want is to give a lot to the people who really care for me.

I’m hoping, after these next few weeks I’ll start reaping the rewards from what to-date has been 9 months of working and planning. And who knows, maybe at the end of it I’ll get that big fat cheque.

the map

is underway. maybe i can get all states coloured by the end of next year?