This Is It.

Well...it's over. There's only a little bit of administrative stuff to take care of at UC, then it'll be back headfirst into NZ life.
I'm noticing the strangest things about home, like the smells. I walked out of Auckland Airport on my way to the domestic terminal and the first thing that hit me was "Hey! It smells like summer!" I have to say, I definitely prefer the NZ version of summer. Winter is much the same but summer...I'll never, ever complain about it here again. I am scarred for life by the clear blue skies and relentless heat of Spain and Italy.

I have had an amazing year but it's also good to be able to slow down, recover my breath, and gain some perspective. I am looking forward to finishing my degree, which will hopefully happen in 2010, and then, depending on what kind of job I can get overseas and my student loan balance, I will move back to europe. Scotland, probably, but I'm open to ideas.

What did I learn? The most important one is probably that very few things are the end of the world, and that even if it's not what you would have preferred, it'll work out. Especially with a smile.

I hope that you've enjoyed reading my blog. I have used it mostly to record the year for my own later reference but it's been good to be able to share it with people back home. This will be the last post, I expect, unless something major happens that's related to 2009, so I hope you have a wonderful year! I'm a little curious as to who actually reads this so if you're willing please leave a comment.

Take care
Katie :-)

The Prodigal Daughter Returns

Leaving Spain was strange. I couldn't manage to convince myself that this was the last time I'd walk through Plaza Mayor for a long time...it just didn't feel real. So I jumped on a bus to the train station, and caught various different trains through to the airport, only to have a minor panic attack when I saw that an earlier flight to Frankfurt had been cancelled...because of snow. Argh!! Thankfully my flight was more or less ok, although it left a bit late because the air traffic controllers in Madrid were gratuitously delaying planes for half an hour. Go Spain. Not.

So I had a tightish connection in Frankfurt, and it was a long walk to the gate so I ended up running through the terminal. My boots-with-not-much-grip were very unhelpful, and at one point I fell over and landed quite hard on my right hand. It didn't start hurting til I was through security etc thank goodness but when I boarded the plane (yes I made it - but with only about 10 mins to spare) - YEOWCH!!! It didn't look too bad, it swelled up a little but it really hurt all the way to Hong Kong. There I bought some herbal bruise cream stuff which has helped. It has a very strong smell which the cats hate though.
I was lucky in Frankfurt when I left the EU though. The spanish govt hadn't sent me word of my renewed residency card, so all I had was a letter confirming that I'd applied for a renewal. The border control guy looked at it for a few minutes - I forced myself to wait patiently, even though I had to run to my plane - and eventually just handed me everything and said "fine, go". I guess his spanish wasn't so good! Lucky for me! I didn't realise at the time but Dad pointed out later that there was a danger of being labelled an overstayer if he couldn't be bothered looking at my papers properly so I think next time I'd better chase everything up.

Hong Kong looked exciting, although VERY hazy. I was excited to see so much water and I had several hours, so I was keen to enter the country and go on a ferry trip, but I really needed a shower and the only showers available were through security, so I had to choose. I went for the shower. I will have to go back one day though.

The flight to Auckland was long and boring, although I did watch Mary Poppins. The guy in the seat next to me had also flown from the EU and he obviously hadn't taken a shower in Hong Kong, and the chinese guy on my other side had no concept of elbow room or 'avoiding digging other people in the ribs when you want to do ANYTHING'..gaah. But a Steinlager helped. Even though I had no idea that it was a New Zealand beer. Thanks Air New Zealand.

Then half an hour to wait after clearing customs in Auckland, and 45 mins on a plane to Welly, and I FINALLY got my hug from Mum. Oh it was good to be home.

I'm going home...aren't I?

My last few days in Spain were a little weird. I had so much to do, packing, getting rid of stuff I couldn't take with me, catching up with everybody one last time... but it was difficult to consider NZ as home. I had done so much travelling around europe that Spain felt like home, although now I'm back it's definitely home!
Anyway, I had lunch with Carmen (from the ORI) and Julio, and their cat Mimi, and my guitar (which I gave to Julio before christmas). We had an El Salvadorean chicken soup, which was divine, although Mimi was disappointed she didn't get any, then played with the cat for a bit. Her christmas present was a laser, which she'd chase all around the room, and when you swept it across the floor and up the wall she'd jump after it, getting really high. Like over my head height! It was so much fun.
Thursday during the day I took some cake and soft drink to the ORI, to say thankyou and goodbye. They were so nice to me and when I return to Europe I will definitely visit them in Spain. It was a working day for them so I chatted when I could but it was a sorta disjointed way to say bye. Ah well.
Thursday night, my last night in Spain, I went to Karolina's (a lithuanian girl) for dinner. We were thinking about going to the chinese restaurant but in the end Karolina cooked some Sweet and Sour Chicken at home, and it was delicious. We had lithuanian sweets for dessert. I couldn't have asked for a better 'leaving dinner'! Later on, about 1am we headed out to a nightclub where the erasmus students gather every thursday. I didn't stay too late, leaving shortly after 2, as I wanted to get some sleep before getting up early, but even so I didn't get to say goodbye to some people because they hadn't arrived yet. Crazy italians. Anyway, I was sad to leave, I made some very good friends there, but I know I'll be back some day. And on the plus side, I now have couches to crash in Poland, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Italy, France, Ireland, England...and probably a few more. I hope some people will make it out out to NZ too but I'm not holding my breath, it is a long and expensive trip.

Bonne Annee 2010

Nantes...it's a really cool place. Mostly because I stayed with Ana, but still I really liked the cathedral/castle. And the trams. Once afternoon I took a wander down to the two-storey wooden elephant, it has electronics wired into it so it can walk, after a fashion. You can even ride on it but it seemed more interesting to me to be able to watch it "walking".

I also went with Ana to her university where she showed me around a little, then settled down to study in the library. I walked back to town, stopping at a park called the Ile de Versailles, which has a gorgeous asian garden and stuff on it.
We went out for kebabs and crepes, and hung out at home with Bob the fish. I'm sorry this post is so short but I'm not very motivated right now, and it was enough to get to know the french side of Ana. I don't really feel like I need to record every little detail.

So thanks, Ana! I had a great time and I love your family. I hope we'll see each other again soon :).