LOG

04/01/2022
Tuesday, sunny with clouds

Happy New Year and Kia Ora! I'm here in NZ, finally! We landed a couple of weeks ago but everything has been so hectic I didn't have much time to update my website. Everything is awesome so far, I'm still pinching myself every now and then to make sure that it's real, that I'm really here.

The journey to NZ was looooooong. 6 hours drive to Montreal, fly to Newark, then to LA and finally we were on our way to Aotearoa. We landed in Auckland since that was our final destination but got flown out to Christchurch for MIQ, which was a bit upsetting because we were already so exhausted from all the previous traveling we already did. But hey, can't complain too much, at least we were lucky enough to get a MIQ spot. We got sent back after our 7 days were completed and after we got our day 9 negative test we were free.

Right now we're back on the South Island but only until tomorrow as we did a short one week trip down here to have a look at our new place and start cleaning and arranging stuff. We're going back to Auckland for about a month to enjoy the big city, meet some of Omi's friends and buy things for the new house before we start the drive to move here permanently. We're taking the opportunity to make this drive a nice big road trip before we settle down, I'm so excited to see both old and new things!

The place we got is absolutely lovely, it's next to the beach, spacious yet cozy. It needs some TLC, but I don't mind that, I like working with my hands. We already met the neighbors who are absolutely wonderful and we started to get familiar with the town and its surroundings. I'm a bit sad I had to leave most of my collection back home with my parents because there is definitely space for it here, but it's okay, I know it's in good hands and anyways I can "start over" here.

That's pretty much it for now, I'll write a more thorough thing on my whole MIQ experience and the first trip down South later when my Interests sections is more fleshed out.

Any locals, what are the best spots in Auckland? Restaurants, shops, scenic points, you name it! I want to know it all.

02/12/2021
Thursday, snow
Well technically for me it's still Wednesday because it's 3:30AM and I haven't gone to sleep yet but it doesn't really matter.



December is here! The past few weeks have been going by so quickly, it's crazy. We had our first real snowfall last weekend so now the landscape is back to a quiet white, a quiet white that I'll enjoy while I'm in it because in a week it's gonna be adios winter and hi to another summer lol. Yesterday was my mom's birthday, we had lots of fun celebrating it at home and we're gonna celebrate again at the restaurant on Friday.

I'm starting to think of things I'm gonna do while in MIQ. I bought VA-11 Hall-A on Steam a couple of days ago so it's probably gonna be my quarantine game. I've wanted to play this for years and it just never happened and now I have a golden oppotunity so that's fun. I also plan to do lots of coding and maybe start a few online courses just so my brain stays active. My BIL said that if we're quarantining in Auckland he would bring us some nice food and snacks during our stay so that would be awesome.

At this point I'm not really stressed about anything (just a bit sad that I'm leaving my family behind) but one thing that scares me is my accent and the way I have of forgetting words at the worst time. I'm ESL and it really shows from the moment I open my mouth and I fucking hate it, I studied English all my goddamn life and yet sometimes I can't even use proper syntax in a normal conversation because I'm thinking too much about what I want to say. And as for my accent, it just serves as a way to separate me from my peers, I feel inferior and I feel stupid. I know it has nothing to do with stupidity but somehow my brain interprets it that way. Omi keeps telling me that I have nothing to worry about on that aspect, that my accent is perfect and that my English is good, but I think thinking he's only saying that because he's my partner and he wants me to feel good about myself. And then I start to think think think and my thoughts are tripping on eachother. And then I can't speak English normally anymore lol.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAnyways other than dumb irrational fears I feel confident to make this next step and I'm very excited to land in NZ, go through MIQ and then see my in-laws. I can't wait to get a bite of a good hot butter chicken pie, last night I even dreamed of getting one from bp. I don't know why bp.

26/11/2021
Friday, cloudy
The past few weeks have been... rock n' roll? Busy? I don't really know how to explain it. It's not negative though, quite the contrary.

We're leaving in 2 weeks so we're currently in the last minute preparations: saying our goodbyes to friends and family, packing, making sure everything is good when it comes to paperwork and stuff. A couple of weeks ago I still had worries about leaving my old life behind, but now I'm ready and super excited. I had some conversations with my mom that just really put me to peace and anytime I feel the anxiety coming up I think about her words. I'm gonna miss mom, dad, my brothers and the pets at home so so much but they're gonna go see me and of course I'm gonna come back here as often as I can so I try not to think about it too much and just daydream about all the adventures I'm gonna live in my new home.

In other news, apart from all the preparing to go live in a whole other country, things have been nice. Just chilling at home with my family and catching up on some things I haven't had the occasion to do when I was still working.

I've watched a lot of good movies (and some not so good) with my family in the last few weeks and I've done a bit of art but a lot of my time was spent tinkering on my laptop of playing vidya. ofc I played a bunch of the new ACNH update and the DLC, it's tons of fun and it really made the game much better. Yesterday I also started a new gamecube AC playthrough because nostalgia. In Shinymas news I didn't get the new Mei P-SSR and that made me very upset, but I'm mostly over that for now. I also played a bit of Pokemon Sword. Good times.

I've also watched a lot of Counting On, it's good background noise while doing something else. I don't know what it is with my interest towards the Duggars, it really is a guilty pleasure looking into their lives and hating them for their hateful beliefs. In the past I wouldn't be caught dead watching 19 kids and counting or counting on because let's face it, it's trashy as hell but as I get older I realize that it doesn't really matter what other people think of my reality watching habits so here we are I guess. Should I make a Counting On review on my (soon to come!) interests page? I have a lot to say about that trainwreck, especially with the Josh trial coming next week, but I feel like I should watch some KAC episodes before because I've only seen a bit back in highschool.

I think that's it for now. I just finished the base for my gallery page and I'm starting to work on my interests page, I hope to have it in a good enough state to upload it in the next few days.

Damn i really need to write logs more often that shit is really too long and convoluded for such non-events lol

18/10/2021
Monday, cloudy
Here it is, my first log entry on this website. For my log page I wanted to have something calm and relaxing, something that would make the reader feel at peace. I think I did pretty well! Maybe I could add a nice piano tune in the future, who knows.

There was so much stress and anxiety over the last few weeks and I'm really glad it's mostly over for now. My last day at work was last friday and it felt weird but nice waking up this morning and not having to worry about going to the office, being anxious over if something happened during the weekend. It also felt nice not having to worry about emptying the apartment. It felt nice waking up naturally, being greeted downstairs by my parents and Omi, and just start the day slowly. I went for a jog, I showered and I went to do some errands with mom, then I did some cleaning at home, before sitting down for dinner. Everything felt good, even the most mundane things. I felt free and floating, and I still do as I'm writing this. I'm happy that my head is not currently clouded by every little thing that's making me anxious and that I can just relax with my family, indulge in my hobbies and sharpen my coding skills.

I'm very satisfied of my day, even if it was nothing spectacular, I had fun! It's been a while since I've had just a fun normal day!

That calm feeling won't last long, I know, since we're leaving for NZ soon and that will be a whole adventure and we'll be busy as hell, but it will still be fun. I missed fun in my life and I'm glad it's back.

Time to code some more.