11 months down...

Sunday was a scary day. One month from my departure back to the US. I’ve had a lot of difficult decisions to make, but on Friday I finally sorted everything out. To keep you in suspense, I’ll update you on everything else first. 

As I mentioned in my last post, I turned in my last assignment for the year. I got my grade back a few days later. Not only did I pass, but my grade was also high enough to get a $1000 for my last year of school. That will be a nice relief. Sean also finished his semester on Saturday, so it will be nice for both of us to have some free time before I leave.

Other than that it’s been cold and rainy. We have had a few good storms and even some thunder and lightning!

Friday I called Immigration and got the most helpful person ever. She answered all of my questions and I am feeling better about my application, but have also decided to wait until I get back to the US to apply (I don’t want to rush my application and its free if I apply from the US). In the meantime I’m preparing what I can.

So now to the exciting news…. I decided to wait to return to New Zealand until after Christmas. That’s right, those of you in the US will get plenty of quality time with me. My extended family is taking a trip to Jamaica over Thanksgiving and I just didn’t want to miss out on it. My mom then made a fair point that if I was going to stay that long, I might as well stay through until Christmas, so I agreed. Before you ask, I have no idea what I am going to do in terms of a job or where I am going to live, but I’ll hopefully figure that out soon. Right now I am looking forward to seeing my family and friends.

I also decided to leave my job two weeks before I fly home. I have a friend coming to visit the day after I finish, so I plan to travel around with him for a bit and then travel with Sean the rest of the time. Neither of us is looking forward to being apart for 6 months, so I’m trying to spend as much time with him before I leave as possible. He graduates in November so he plans to come visit me in the US then.

And for my family, I think I forgot to mention that he has weekly card night with his friends that I have now become a part of. We play Oh Hell and then whatever else we have time for. He has also taught me 500 and continues to kick my butt, so I’m working on that.

That’s all for now! Can’t wait to see you all!

Time for a breather!!

I am proud to announce that I just submitted my final assignment for the third year of my yacht design studies! Due to essentially taking six months off when I got here, the past few months has been hard work non stop. There were many a times when I was stressed and worried I wouldn't get it done (very abnormal for me) but its amazing how much the stress disappeared when I got my new job. As the deadline got closer and I was seeming ahead of schedule it got a lot less stressful. I've been trying to still see as much of this country as I can, but its been hard. Now I'm able to make the most of it for my last month or so here.

Due to my homework I'm a little behind on keeping you updated. Sean's parent's bought a house up north and we went to see it a few weekends ago. It had an absolutely amazing view and we had a great trip. The first day we went on a hike with Sean's brother and saw some great views. The next day on our way home we went to a ropes course and had an absolute blast. There were a ton of ziplines (called flying foxes here) and a good variety of challenges. There was even a tarzan swing that the boys really enjoyed.

The view from their living room

There is a little pond below and the neighbor even has an alpaca.

The view from our bedroom.

The view on our hike

Where we stopped for our lunch break

Last weekend Sean very nervously let me cut his hair. Fortunately it actually turned out quite well. I'm constantly finding things I wished I could fix, but overall I'm pleased. See the results below.

Since then its pretty much been all homework. The amount of design related stuff I am getting to do at work seems to be increasing, so I am excited about that.

Now that my homework is done I'm going to start focusing on applying for a visa. I have no idea how easy it will be, so we will see.

And I saved the best for last. Happy Birthday to my amazing sister and Happy Father's Day to the best dad I could ask for!!!