so i think it is safe to say that in the last few weeks i have "settled in"....
spent the worst of my jet-lagged days in akld coming to terms with being wide awake at 3am and therefore needing to nap at 4 and/or passed out by 9..and felt somewhat high and sick but i put this down to a de-altitude sickness too...also have come to realise i am well allergic to new zealand...but later targetted this more specifically to the scuzzy, dirty little fluffballs known as cats....and got thouroughly disoriented at the backwards culture shock, somewhat amplified by the unfamiliar anyway "aucklandness"....tried not to cringe at the nz accent, stood confused when 'tip' was given back to me as change (in funny new coins), re-learnt looking right way when crossing the road, working on the moving left for oncoming pedestrians and going ot the right side of the car, mocked for saying tomayto not tomatoe and various other americanisms: trash, trunk, orange soda, dude...and (re)learning/interpreting many new-zealandisms: yeah-no, mate, rubbish, boot...
spent a few days making it down country by bus (worst part of the entire year and a half....winding nz roads, no a/c, packed bus...nuf said) stopping off to visit the family along the way....finally made it to wellington only to not be recognized by my own mother when i stepped off the bus....
have been variously trying to wrap my head around the very bizarre system that is the Canadian tax laws....spent some time trying to calculate tax return only to discover *if i'd done it right, which i highly doubt i had* that i actually owed them money...called various international tax helplines without being able to even be connected, failed to find any nz based help and decided it was just too much hassle....which is what they want you to do i think..very cunning...and generally trying to pick the strands of my abandoned life back up..
decided that i should try and find some kind of income... considering i have failed to bring funds back with me through both lack of work in california and the rediculously high exchange rate at the moment...so tried to apply for unemployment and was unfortunately forced to take a job in the same day...friggen luck of it eh? thought i could at least milk the system for a few weeks!...therefore am currently 'working', ie mostly standing around, in a pharmacy for 30 or so hours a week and doing butt all else....next step is figuring out how to get a car that won't blow up/ break down and make it to the other end of the country where i will join the fight to find somewhere to live for the winter...cheers to that...