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.