Let's get it started !

So 7 days ago I have arrived into Christchurch, New Zealand. One week. One crazy, full of everything week. My first day at work. New people. And little adventures of course. Shall I start with work? The Institute where I work is really new and really lovely. People who work there are incredibly nice as well. And really really chilled. Kiwi style. Say I was told that if I ever feel like it I can just not show up at work for a day or two- all I have to do is email them. Of course, I can’t do that too often, but still. Another good thing is that I can show up whenever I want as long as I do show up and get my tasks done. And it’s not like I have that many tasks yet. But I plan on getting involved in more projects soon. We have quite a few meetings during the week where people who work there present their research ideas or just discuss research that has already been conducted. I plan on leading a couple of those meetings in the future- I think that it would be incredibly useful to say have my dissertation idea discussed in one of these meetings. But of course, first I have to come up with one. By the way once a month at work we have happy Thursdays- that is everyone drinking wine or beer and chilling together. Also, turns out one of my collegues is a surfer who has already promised to teach me the basics once the spring in Christchurch settles in properly. Yes, spring. It’s so strange to know that we are heading towards summer again. My second summer in a row. Thanks to the lovely Mona who I also met in my work on my first day and who is also an intern there, the only difference is , she is here only for 10 weeks and now has only 4 weeks left, I have met quite a few cool people outside my work as well. That was when on Tuesday I went to an international students party. It was really really fun, but how I got there is even more worth telling. I came home to have lunch and right before I had to leave this crazy storm came out of nowhere. Black black clouds, thunder and lightning and the biggest hail I have ever seen in my life. As I later found out these type of storms come to Christchurch from Antarctica. My housemates told me they’ve never seen a storm like this before. Anyway, my housemate who just got back from work did not want me walking in this weather and decided to give me a lift to uni which was incredibly nice. A bit scary though- beware of 19 year old kiwi’s driving, I’m not joking. You don’t want to be in their way. He dropped me off and then I headed to Mona’s where we were supposed to meet up and go to the party together. The only problem was- I forgot where exactly she lived. So I just knocked on a random door hoping I’d be lucky. Well I wasn’t. I didn’t even have any credit so I couldn’t text her and find out where she was. The guy on whose door I knocked happened to be very nice though and let me text her from his phone. Also he made me tea while we waited for reply. He said I was welcome to pop up whenever I want. Quite an interesting way to meet people, huh? Oh and by the way the next day Mona got a text from him asking if he could have my number and this is how I ended up going on my first kiwi date today, right after happy Thursday. Then Wednesday I joined the tramping club. While I was going there I bumped into a guy who I met and talked for a bit when I was walking around campus on Saturday. He ended up giving me his number “In case I ever got lost, needed a lighter or whatever”. Anyway I am now going tramping on Saturday and will finally get to see some of the beautiful mountains surrounding Christchurch. That is my first trip outside the city, but definitely not the last. Also, one of the club members kindly borrowed me a jacket a pants because I do not have any clothes with which I could climb up the mountains and survive. So now, even though I do not even remember which mountain I signed up to climb up, I am really really looking forward to this weekend. Including the international students dinner tomorrow. And a party on Saturday after the trip if I come back from it alive. We'll see. Until next time ! P.S. photos hopefully coming soon !

First days.

Hey there, I am back. I was busy getting to and then settling in at the other side of the world. But here I am, in Christchurch, New Zealand. Finally, feeling like I can write again. The first two days were incredibly hard. I constantly felt sleepy in the middle of the days, always close to tears somehow without any good reason. Homesick of course. And settling in- buying stuff and unpacking are not exactly kind of things that help you take off your mind from everything that bothers you. If to be honest, I don’t think that avoiding something because it is hard has ever solved anything so I guess that is for the best. I had to face that and I did. Maybe one of the reasons why it was so hard is that I had the best time in Singapore. Couchsurfing is awesome ! I got picked up from the airport- someone who did not even know me came to meet me and help me to get into the city. Then another couchsurfer joined us and she happened to be the best tour guide ever. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have seen half of what I saw and learnt about Singapore. Thank you both ! Then around noon I met up with one of my friends back from home. We got taken to a crazy car drive around the entire city by another couchsurfer and saw even more which I did not think was possible and was out there to see. He even took us to the airport and waited ages for me and my friend to say all the goodbyes. Which was an incredibly hard goodbye by the way. Maybe that’s because I knew he was the last one of all my friends of Europe that I saw. A piece from my past before a completely unknown new beginning. The last goodbye that I had to say before many many hello’s awaiting. When I finally got into the plane that had to take me to New Zealand I was awake for more than 30 hours. So I slept like a baby during the entire flight and when I woke up we were already approaching the shores of New Zealand. I don’t think I have enough words to describe how beautiful that view was. I took my breath away.

The plane landed. It was sunny but I could still feel winter chilliness sinking into my bones. That is why I found it really funny that the homemate that came to pick me up from the airport was not wearing shoes. He thought it was super warm today compared to the other days before. So we joked that I brought the summer with me. Then, I was quickly shown around, taken to the mall and left in piece to unpack. All I wanted to do the entire day was go to bed but I didn’t. I eventually met the rest of my housemates and was slightly surprised when I found out that all of them are guys. There was supposed to be one girl but she moved out about two weeks ago. So now it was me, 4 guys, one rabbit and two guinea pigs. I was scared to be alone all the time up until today’s evening. Because when I was alone I would realise how far I am, how foreign and how alone. I still am it just doesn’t scare me anymore. Because although my housemates and other people I’ve met so far are really nice to me, I kind of jumped in the middle of their lives and I feel like I don’t really fit in. Which is perfectly normal, cause it’s only been two days and they’ve known each other for ages. But still. I have to build a life here of my own. It’s going to take time. Not everything is going to be easy. But what changed today I think is that hidden by so many travels, flights, time difference and new people I’ve finally rediscovered myself. I felt like myself again and it felt really really good. I walked to the university’s park. The campus buildings are ugly, not gonna lie. But the nature.. It’s amazing. And the sunset I saw in the middle of the fields was different from any sunset that I have seen before. The way sun shines here is different. And it’s not all entirely my imagination- maybe it’s because of thinner ozone layer? While I was watching that sunset I felt that I became alive again. I felt the ground with my feet and it felt good. And then finally I felt that I could write again which is what I am doing now.

I also realised that Bath was exactly the same in the beginning. Scary, new. And ironically I found the campus buildings ugly too. Every begging is hard. But now I miss Bath and everyone I met there. It did kind of become a third home for me. The first is Vilnius Lithuania. Second is Paros, Greece. Third is Bath England. So probably Christchurch, New Zealand is going to be the fourth? Only time will show. Anyway, whoever was reading this is probably asleep by now haha. Sorry. But a lot happened and a lot had to be told. And there is more of course to come. A lot. But now I am really really looking forward to everything. M.

Iamsterdam

So Amsterdam. I was there for three days and I fell in love with it so feel that it deserves a separate blogpost, just a tiny one. It is such a beautiful city- with all it’s twisty streets and canals and boats. Millions of bikes. They are probably more dangerous to the pedestrians than the cars. And it’s unpredictable weather. About one month ago the dutch had a strike against bad weather there, can you imagine? Crazy ! And according to my source it worked. They are quite crazy about strikes in general. They are not afraid to stand up for what they believe and that’s another reason why I loved Amsterdam. And of course it’s diversity and tolerance- the coffeeshops, the red light district, children day care centre and churches peacefully coexist together despite being complete opposites. I happened to witness the favourite sport of drunk Dutch men- throwing unlocked bicycles in the canal. It’s a competition to see who can throw them the furthest as I later found out. I was quiet in a hurry back then because I didn’t want to end up in the canal with the bikes. My hostel was near the Museumplein so I could walk everywhere by foot. Very useful. Met a few people from Argentina with who I had a couple of beers at 9am during breakfast because they insisted. On our third day we got involved in a little adventure. We went to have lunch in a beautiful cafe near the river. It was the sunniest day and we were truly enjoying ourselves. And then suddenly, I am not entirely sure how a woman fell of her chair into the canal. Again, I am not quite sure how but she managed to grab the edge to the pavement so she didn’t fall into the water directly. She was hanging above the water with her expensive camera on her neck. Luckily everybody reacted really quickly. People jumped to pull her out. Unfortunately her bag was already in the water so as a small boat was passing by we asked them to pull the lady’s stuff out of the water and the cafe’s chair. Quite a few people gathered to watch the mini show at the other side of the canal and as soon as the lady, her bag and the chair were safe they started to applaude. So my piece of advice would be- yes it’s nice to sit and chill near the beautiful canals of Amsterdam but don’t get too chilled (or stoned haha) cause well... You can easily end up in the water together with the bikes. What else to tell? Well, went out at night, got lost a couple of times, and had a lot of fun during entire time of my stay. I intend to be back to the Dam someday. I met quite a few people who lived there for a while and then came back because they loved Amsterdam and I can perfectly see why. It was amazing. I am really glad it ended up being my last stop in Europe. Iamsterdam. I <3 Amsterdam !!

There's a whole New World

And so my final hour in Europe is finally ticking. I should probably write about my experiences in Amsterdam.. but I am way too excited and scared at the same time about what is yet to come and is coming so soon that I just can’t. I will sum up Amsterdam in three words for now and they are: IT WAS AWESOOOOOOOMEEEEEEEEEE !!!!! I hopefully will write more later, trust me, I did work up some funny and interesting stories to tell. But for now this shall be enough. I really love Europe and I’m going to miss it- the old town streets full of charm, the fact that is relatively small say compared to the states or Australia but every single bit of it is different, full of history. And it’s going to be really hard to be away from everyone, I am pretty sure I am going to be homesick quite a few times but I think in the end is going to be worth it. Because you become stronger, you learn only when you come outside of your comfort zone and both Singapore (which is oh god, so disorganized. Hopefully I will see at least something there and well... certain someone. Fingers crossed !) and New Zealand are definitely outside my comfort zone for now. I am pretty sure they will be completely different from everything that I could have imagined so I am trying not to expect anything at all. Wish me luck because I am going to need it. Goodbye Europe. Dear Singapore and dear New Zealand, here I come ! There's a whole world out there.

On the way to New Zealand

Hello, dear reader. I decided to start writing this blog so I can keep in touch with my family and friends back in Lithuania because I am from there and also everyone that I met in Greece, England and everywhere else. I won’t write a long introduction because I am assuming you are one of them, so you already know who I am and that the main reason I am starting this blog is because I am going to New Zealand from my placement where I will work in New Zealand Institute of Language Brain and Behaviour for at least 9 months. Hopefully, whilst I am I can also travel to Australia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and well.. wherever the wind takes me. So tonight I took the bus from London where I spent most of my summer to Amsterdam because that is from where my flight New Zealand departs. I think it was a 10 hour journey. Night journey. Needless to say at the moment I am feeling slightly sleep deprived. But I have a spare hour because I already managed to make my way around the city and find my hostel. Now I am waiting for my mum who should arrive here in one hour. She took the plane from Lithuania to Amsterdam to stay with me here for my last three days in Europe because she was determined to be the last one to see me off. I rode a tram and a bus to get to my hostel and I did it for free because I had no cash with me and the drivers decided to be super nice to a foreigner with her entire life packed into two massive suitcases, very heavy suitcases by the way. Thank you. It made my morning. And thank you, the girl from Hong Kong who I met at London Victoria Coach Station who took the same bus to Amsterdam with me for agreeing to pretend that one of these massive suitcases were yours so I did not have to pay the fine for violating megabus baggage restrictions and was allowed to enter the bus. And finally, the guy who I met on that bus too but who got off at Brussels. Who did history and international relations for bachelors degree, but is now doing journalism for masters, doing an internship in BBC in London and who was going to Brussels for the weekend only- the wedding and few parties. If you ever happen to read this, please do contact me. I wish I asked for your contact details. I guess it’s crazy to expect that will ever happen, but in this crazy universe you never know, right? Not sure how much time will I have to write in this blog, because I want to make the most of Amsterdam, the most of my 15 hours in Singapore and of course my final destination for now- New Zealand. But I’ll make an effort I promise. I guess that’s it for now. Time to go and explore Amsterdam ! M.

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The only person standing in your way is You.