Time of my life

Well the anticipated first few niggling thoughts of homesickness are beginning to creep in. The honeymoon is all but nearly over. The reality that I am in a foreign country, of which I don’t speak the language and have actually no friends, is kind of daunting. I am not saying I’m overly depressed, or even regretting my decision, just lonely I guess. I have been trying to think of ways to get out there and make friends, short of walking up to randoms in the street :o) I didn’t really think it would be too bad a problem as I have always made friends so easily before. But the thing I hadn’t really thought too much about is that before I’ve always been in a situation where friends were always more readily available. If I ever started somewhere new, there were others in the same boat nearby. High school, University and starting a new job all mean you’re usually surrounded by people if not your own age, then you’ll at least share something in common. But when you move to a new country, and you know no body, and your work means you’re surrounded by children, and the parents of those children are usually 10 to 20 years older than you are - it can be a little isolating.

Kj's song from 'Dirty Dancing' - "I've had the time of my life", has plagued me for the last month. When I was entering Narita Airport in Tokyo, it started playing on my MP3 player and it was so cliché. I was in this massive Airport, one of the biggest in the world, utter madness - people everywhere, all in a hurry and looking like they know where they are going and me little old Niki from New Zealand, standing with my backpack and as I step into the giant check-in hall, I look up to the flight board and that song starts to play. I just had a huge grin on my face, and if anyone had seen me, they would have put me in the crazy bin right there!!!

Then last Monday night I met up with a friend of Ro's and we went to an Irish Pub, with Karoke. Of course what is one of the last songs to be sung before I had to leave - but you guessed it "I've had the time of my life", as I had had a few I don't mind saying I got a little teary eyed! Not enough for anyone to really notice mind you! Sadly Ro’s friend, René is already back in NZ, he was only here for a months visit.

This week has been very low key, I've been sick since Saturday and so has Max (the older boy) so he's been off school. We've both been pretty much housebound, and to make it worse it’s the middle of summer here - equivalent to January in NZ.

I have managed to do a little bit of shopping here, of course you've got to keep in the back of your mind that I'm not shopping in NZ dollars and so everything is really twice the price of what you think it is. But the shoes are quite cheap, and the only embarrassing situation I've had so far is when trying to go bra shopping. Not my most favoured task anyway, but when you can't speak the same language your not quite sure what the woman you just asked a question is actually screaming across the store and then you have no idea why everyone stops and looks at you oddly. Not pleasant!! I'll stick to Internet shopping methinks, or pestering people into doing it for me in NZ :o)

I’m looking forward to Sunday afternoon, where I’m meeting up with some locals (a few of René’s friends) and they're going to show me a bit more of the area. And as you can imagine I'm getting super excited about Lisa arriving, only a little over a week to go!!!