I am feeling better physically and emotionally, although I
just can’t shake this headache. I have shaken off my negativity and am back to
my optimistic self.
Part of that positivity is the result of a realization I
came to this morning. After several days here, even setting the jetlag aside, I
realized that I was feeling a bit disappointed. The buildup, anticipation, and
eagerness to get here seemed out of proportion with the “excitement” of filling
out paperwork, learning our way around, and staying in a simple hotel. So no
wonder it was a bit anti-climactic. But as soon as I realized this, and made
the connection between that and how I was feeling, the problem was basically
solved. We are not here as tourists. We are here to settle in to our Kiwi
lives. That means that we can’t swoop in, do all the fun stuff, and move along,
because we have business to get done. But it also means that once we get
settled in, we will have lots of time to do all that fun stuff, to learn about
the culture, and to find the special things that tourists would never find out
about. I’ll take that trade, especially now that I can step back and realize
that it’s okay to do the boring stuff first.
Also very good for my mood, we did do a bit of exploring today
while looking at houses, which was a lovely reminder of the nice things here.
Here are some pictures I took this morning.
This is the beach on the south side of town. It has black
sand and some very interesting driftwood.
We thought that the driftwood made it look dirty at first,
but upon closer inspection, it was pretty cool.
There are also nice walking trails all up and down the
beach.
Down by the beach, there is also a very cool park, with a
ZIP LINE!!
Also very important – there are beautiful cherry blossoms
downtown. We have loved them every since we were in Japan, and were very happy
to see them.
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