Saturday, February 27, 2010

The Great Debate

Whenever I travel my Little Angel and Little Devil battle it out in every cute boutique, bazaar, and market. The Great Debate usually goes something like this:

Little Angel: "Now Kat, be good, you don't have a lot of money and that (shirt, necklace, ring, notepad...) is much too expensive."

Little Devil: "No way! How many times are you going to be in (insert country name here) and have a chance to buy something THIS unique and amazing?!"

Little Angel: "That's true, but you need to save your money for practical things like food and rent!"

Little Devil: "Just buy it! You have a job and you get paid on Tuesday!"

Hmmmmmmm...


guess I'll push the grocery shopping to next week...




How cute would my new shirt look with this orange flower corsage from Ban.do?!

It also looks cute with my orange Pigenhole earrings :)

Thursday, February 25, 2010

A Bit of Back-tracking

Alrighty, trying to get the hang of this whole blogging thing. I realize that I only ever read blogs that are updated consistently. Must. Update. Consistently.

Although I have now been in Wellington for over 3 weeks (what?!) I decided to back-track a bit for this post and throw up a few pictures from my 22 hours in Beijing, 2 weeks in Australia, and 10 days in the South Island.

I had such an amazing month of travel! I went from -17 degrees (Celsius that is, sounds more dramatic that way) in Beijing...



To a whopping 43 degrees Celsius (109 F) in Oz! I have been to this Land of Oz before, so beautiful! I got to revisit a few places I had been and also hang with my awesome friend Lucy (and her amazingly cute dog, Dexter) who I met in Croatia this past summer!



Then I was off to New Zealand! I spent a day in Wellington while I waited for my awesome Aussie friends, Karen and Alex to pick me up in our rent-a-car.

And to back-track a bit more, I randomly met Karen and Alex during a crazy night out in Greece this past September...



Then randomly bumped into them in Barcelona two weeks later! What a small world it is.



To finish off their 7 month trip around the world, Karen and Alex headed to New Zealand for their last 3 weeks before heading back to their home in Oz. We had kept in touch since our Holiday in Spain and planned to do a road trip of the South Island once they arrived in NZ.

Amazing. We did everything from wine tasting to jet-boating and saw the beach, glaciers, and a rain forest all within a 30 minute drive of each other.



Ah. I love traveling.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Not exactly NEW zeal...

Zeal: fervor for a person, cause, or object; eager desire or endeavor; enthusiastic diligence; ardor
Synonyms: intensity, passion

It really is an old zeal I have for New Zealand. Ever since I traveled here years ago with this lovely lady and our high school choir, I have been wanting to come back.

And not only did I want to come back to visit, I wanted to come back to LIVE. Something has been pulling me, pushing me to get back here; an itch I haven't been able to scratch until now.

10 years later, here I am! After much planning, debating, side-line traveling, and saving of course :) So, I quit my job in San Francisco, headed to Europe for 2 months, came home again to properly say goodbye to friends and family, and bought a one-way ticket to the Land Down Under.

After 22 hours in Beijing, 2 weeks in Australia, and 10 days in the South Island, I am finally here in Wellington (Southern most tip of the North Island for those of you who are geographically challenged). Windy Welly, except for the actual wind, is my perfect little home away from home. A bite-sized San Francisco. I love it here even more than I thought I would. A beautiful, clean, fun, funky and cool town disquised as a city.

It's funny how dreams, projects, passions, and desires nag at you and don't let you sleep until they are full-filled in some way (or is that just me?)... because now I am here and a huge part of me feels at peace. Like my life here has just been sitting and having tea, patiently waiting for me all this time. Is that because I think I am supposed to be here for some other-worldly cosmic reason, or am I just obsessed about getting what I want out of life and now I can rest because I can check this next thing off of my list?

I guess I'll find out :)