Well, okay. Here I am. It’s hard to believe. I am feeling very strange and separate right now so I guess I’ll just tell you what the last couple of days have been like.
After spending a night in Rotorua I went to Napier, based solely on the fact that there is an aquarium there. This was possibly a mistake because not only was the octopus not on display that day but also the town was very very quiet and I was practically alone in the hostel, although the other girl staying in my room turned out to be very nice and gave me some very useful advice. But I was still wondering what Wellington was going to be like and if I’d find anyone to hang out with at all down here. Fortunately for me, a reader of mine, Deirdre, had offered to pick me up at the bus station and then to feed me fish and chips at her house, so after an hour of texting on the bus we met up and stopped off at the hostel I was booked at so I could drop my bag.
A word about the hostel thing, first. I’ve stayed in them several times in Europe and one time, oddly, in Alaska, and normally I’ve felt very comfortable there. The hostels in Auckland, Rotorua, and Napier were all very nice and it was all good. I feel funny, sometimes, when it seems I’m the oldest person there, but I try not to care about it and just get on with my life. The point is that so far my hostel experience has been a very good one.
But this place, though very lovely physically (it’s actually a real hotel with a backpackers’ wing) immediately put my hackles up when I unlocked my room. There were three other people staying there and their stuff was everywhere, all dirty clothes and shoes on the bed and half-eaten things of fries. I’m not, normally, a super-fastidious person, and I get that there’s no maid service or anything, but this was just gross. I threw my bag down and ran back out to Deirdre, telling myself I could always leave in the morning.
Deirdre and her husband and her brother and the brother’s girlfriend were all very friendly and nice to me and it was really cool just to hang out with them and watch the guys eat deep-fried hotdogs, just as if were at some country fair in Booger Falls, Idaho instead of at a nice flat with lovely dishes in Hataitai. We all hung out and talked for a couple of hours and parted with promises to hang out again soon, and I felt very cool for having actually gone out on a Saturday night instead of shivering alone in the awful hostel.
When I got back the other people in the room were asleep already, despite the screaming and karaoke singing coming from the next room. I felt really…I don’t know, it sunds too melodramatic to say “in danger” because I don’t think I was. I never even talked or saw awake any of the other people in the room. But I felt so supremely uncomfortable that I hardly slept at all that night and kept wondering if I was going to be killed in my sleep, and the next morning I just checked out, telling the confused guy at the desk that no, nothing happened but that I just had to go, man, and could he give me the rest of my money back, please?
The girl from Napier had recommended a place she’d stayed in Wellington that was full of people from overseas working in the city and staying there long term, so I called them up. I am now ensconced in a very funny little place, full of British people named things like Simon and Sydney. Everyone cooks in the kitchen together and does puzzles and watches movies together; it tells you how starved I was for some human interaction that I actually watched Jackass: The Movie last night.
Yesterday after I checked in I went to the Te Papa museum and saw, rather dorkily, the Lord Of The Rings exhibit as well as a bunch of way cooler stuff about Maori culture, which is getting more and more interesting to me by the day. Today it’s rainy and cold and I have to do laundry and also start my job search as soon as I am done writing this entry and eating lunch at a new cafe; there are so many in town that I have made it my mission to eat at a new one every day because it’s good to have goals. I’m starting to get my bearings, I guess, if slowly.
I have to say I feel pretty divorced from everyone and everything at the moment. It’s taken me forever to write this entry because I can’t find the words to tell you what being here is like. Going to the grocery store the other day felt very strange (an aisle dedicated to Cadbury chocolate! eggs on the shelves not in the refrigerator! pourable yogurt!), and crossing the street is still a little bit of a challenge, but I don’t think that’s really why I feel so odd. For maybe the first time in my life, ever, I don’t want to talk much. I notice that I don’t want to write very often in my paper journal, much to my suprise, and I hardly even want to read. I just want to look around at all the things I don’t feel a part of: all the people on the street and in the cars and in the cafes, all the times and places that have nothing to do with me.
Comments
16 responses to “In Wellington”
Well I’m glad you feel like checking in, because I’ve been thinking about you.
It probably does no good to say you will feel a part of it soon, but… you will. In the meantime, enjoy the strangeness of it all, as much as you can!
I’ve been thinking about you, girl! Glad to hear that you’re safely in Wellington…keep us posted.
Hey Chiara :)
Good call on getting out of there. In those sorts of situations, trust your instincts, no need for excuses.
Glad to hear your there and doing alright. You’ll get your bearings soon, hang in there :)
You’re soaking in it! Or soaking it in. Or somethng like that.
Just love…
you amaze me…i want ot be you when i grow up!
You, as ever, are the awesomest, dear. Have a great time adjusting to your new digs!
Bad luck at the lack of Octopi, and for the gross out backpackers at the Hostel. Good luck that you’ve got readers who ply you with fish and chips and pick you up at stations!! Have fun sampling all the cafes, and good luck with the job search – I’m sure you’ll land something good, karma would dictate it to be so!
SO glad you trusted your vibes and got the hell out of that first place. New place sounds much better. Enjoy your days of observing, and good luck with your job search. They’re lucky to have you there!
Right now it sounds like you are simply in observation mode. EVERYthing around you is new, so of course you’re going to have your eyes and ears open and scanning. This is not a time for looking down at a keyboard or paper journal! You are an animal in a new habitat.
Sending you love, my dear!!
Hi Chiara, that place you were staying sounds nasty, I hope Wellington gets better! We are in the United States of America now! We are getting a bit more used to it, but it does feell like everyone else knows what is happening and you just have no idea, Even about finding a place to buy food, or what shops sell, or why our flat has no lights in the bedroom or lounge? Let me know if you need to know about anything, or whatever. Wish I was there to show you around! you’l be sweet, ma te wa – Sarah
i’ve heard having a regular thing you do every day helps you feel more adjusted. perhaps find a nice regular place for morning tea or coffee?? enjoy the “ride”.
Hello Chiara,
the weather is beautiful, wish you were, well, somewhere, enjoying yourself. Say, NZ, staying wide-eyed and curious despite having that beginning-of-an-adventure lonely feeling. I usually get that feeling when I move, or travel, by myself. It goes away as I collect (a) friends, or (b) familiar places and things to do. (Like the preceeding post-er says.)
Courage ! you will get bulked up in the (a) department very soon.
I hope it’s all going okay. Can’t wait to read your future posts on life in Wellington.
Have to say that the “crossing the street” situation is 10x worse in Wellington than most New Zealand cities due to the high number of one way streets. You’ll get used to looking the other way soon though :o)
Soon, darling, you will be so in everything that you will look back and barely remember what this felt like. Soon.