Long time no see, huh. This writer’s block is a funny thing. The longer I put it off, the more I get to write about, and the more difficult and for some reason embarrassing it gets to actually do it. It’s not like I couldn’t have taken the time to write, because I have evidently been doing things that are less important to me. Like sleeping, or eating, or staring at the wall. And I’ve been living this whole time too, this past month, having a splendidly great time. There are a thousand and three wonderful things I could write about, so much that I don’t know where to start. Oh what the hell. I’ll just pretend that I don’t really have to tell you anything (which is in fact, you know, true), and just write whatever comes to mind now. Yeah, that’ll do. If you wanted structure and orderliness and interestingly layouted blog posts instead of these haphazard streams of consciousness you could just follow the blog of a proper writer instead. ANYway here we go.
I’m in New Zealand. On the other side of the world, from the perspective of my usual geographic location. It’s every bit as amazing and interesting as I had imagined, and yes, I do feel a bit upside-down. At least when looking at the sky. This is the Southern Hemisphere, gods damnit, and although I was well aware of what that meant the sky is supposed to look like I still find it utterly alien. And so very, very beautiful. For the first time in forever I feel more lost than at home when looking at the stars, only knowing a handful of the new constellations, and the few familiar ones are upside down. I am confused to the point of dazed-ness, and it is such a lovely feeling. It triggers my curiosity and imagination, and I get to learn to find my way across the sky all over again. Wow. I can only imagine my confusion and wonder if I should ever find myself under a strange sky in another planetary system.
The sun and the moon rise and set in mystical places, and the cars do not drive on the right side of the road. The trees are strange, and so are the birds, most of them being endemic. I’ve hardly learned a handful of their names, but they’re all very interesting and pretty. Same goes for the locals, or ‘kiwis’, as they call themselves. If I’m allowed to generalise wildly I’d say they’re a laid-back and friendly bunch. Based on the limited sample of people I’ve met they are apparently also LARPers, roleplayers, boardgamers or general geeks the whole lot of them. Not that I’m complaining, those are my very favourite kinds of people. I feel at home here, and I think I’ve even made some friendships. Not only the one-way ‘oh wow you’re so tall and old I want to hug you and climb you and sit in your shade’ tree kinda friendship, or the ‘oh wow you’re so powerful and cool and huge I want to jump in your waves and swim in you please don’t drown me’ ocean kinda friendship, or the ‘oh wow you made part of this land can I run up your sides and admire your history and connections to the core of the earth please don’t destroy my town’ volcano kinda friendship. But also actual reciprocal, human friendship.
I don’t think I will like it, I already know that I love it here. I miss a few people (and a certain cat) back in Sweden, but other than that I could pretty much stay here, that’s how much in love I am with the place. I suppose curiosity would drag me away sooner or later, but there seems to be an abundance of beautiful places to discover in this country. As it is, deadlines and expiring visas and whatnot will bring me back north in five months, so it’s not an issue in any case. I think that’s all I have to say regarding New Zealand at present. I’d make a lousy travel-guide writer, wouldn’t I? It’s too personal, what I write. But that’s the way I am, I just can’t keep myself from taking everything personally. Am I absurdly self-centred or just hopelessly bad at filtering feelings from sensory impressions? I don’t know.
Fear not. I’ll be back, probably more shortly this time. With words. About things. Possibly university, or LARPing, or Hobbiton, or other adventures or explorations. No promises, though, or I might get stuck again. Friends and family overseas: I’m alive and well, be content with that for the moment.
Love and awesomeness overload,
Winterdragon
